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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27923497">A Break from War to Celebrate the Holidays</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaseTheFearAway/pseuds/ChaseTheFearAway'>ChaseTheFearAway</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxies_tangerine/pseuds/Galaxies_tangerine'>Galaxies_tangerine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aggressive Pining, Betaed, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Holidays, How Do I Tag, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, I don't think, Ignoring the war, M/M, Missing Scene, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Winter, codywan - Freeform, everyone is happy, holiday fluff, you can't actually prove this isn't canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:27:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>29,670</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27923497</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaseTheFearAway/pseuds/ChaseTheFearAway, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxies_tangerine/pseuds/Galaxies_tangerine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Commander?" Ahsoka heard Rex's voice, "Commander, we should probably get moving. Don't want to be in the middle of the tundra for longer than we have to." Ahsoka agreed, tucking the blanket around her shoulders and turned to the general direction of the village.<br/><br/>Obi-wan held his lightsaber out in front of him, providing adequate light for himself and his commander to make their way through the forest to the village the five of them were supposed to rendezvous at. Cody had his back, as always, his steady presence comforting Obi-wan.<br/><br/>Anakin was alone, which just went to show how his luck was today. Obi-wan had crashed with his commander and Ahsoka had Rex (which he was grateful for, he'd rather his padawan <i> wasn't </i> alone in the tundra), but still. The wind wasn't great company.<br/><br/>This is basically a fluffy holiday fic where I pointedly ignore the war happening by having Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex, Cody and Obi-wan crash on an ice planet and  rendezvous at a village, who's residents just so happen to be celebrating the amalgamation of real-world winter holidays I slapped into the story. It's just domestic fluff.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anakin Skywalker &amp; Ahsoka Tano, CC-2224 | Cody &amp; CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody &amp; Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex &amp; Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Ahsoka Tano</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>129</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Crash</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>nobody:<br/>me, getting the idea for a fluffy domestic christmas fic literally the first day of december:</p><p>special thanks to @galaxies_tangerine for beta-ing this and giving me a bunch of ideas, or at least letting me bounce ideas off of her!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Ahsoka woke up, lying flat on her back on the ground, she was <i>freezing</i> cold. </p><p>She rolled onto her side and tucked herself into the smallest ball she could manage, opening her eyes slowly. She kept her eyes in a squint, giving herself time to adjust to the too-bright light a few feet in front of her head, still quite tired.</p><p><i>Focus, Ahsoka,</i> she scolded herself. Her hands grasped a rough blanket that she didn’t notice was there before and tugged it as high as she could, trying to keep it tucked under her feet to trap her body heat. Another shiver ran down her lekku and bare arms, and she mentally cursed her rather skimpy outfit. Usually, whenever she was on an ice planet, she would be wearing layers cloaks and jackets, so her considerably warm-temperature-geared outfit was never a problem.</p><p>So why <i>was</i> she on an ice planet without proper gear?</p><p>Somewhere in the back of her mind danced memories of Master Obi-wan, Commander Cody, Skyguy, Rex and herself together for a mission on an ice planet—<i>Svet-Ki, </i>her brain supplied helpfully—but it seemed to flicker around like an illusion in her brain.</p><p>Groaning, Ahsoka pushed herself up, her cold and sore muscles protesting the movement and sudden lack of covering. She tugged the blanket around her shoulders and pulled her feet under her, hunching over to tuck the blanket under the sides of her boots as well. She stared into the light—which she could now tell was an emergency heating lamp that was likely stowed on their starfighter for this very reason—and tried to focus her mind while her vision cleared.</p><p>“…mander?” Ahsoka heard a faint voice from somewhere in her vicinity, and she furrowed her brow-ridge in confusion when she realized she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Usually, she was able to pinpoint the location of any noise within a few metres of her, so <i>why couldn’t she now?</i> The voice sounded muffled as well, almost as if her montrals were underwater.</p><p><i>The cold!</i> Ahsoka realized. Though she had never experienced it to this degree, Ahsoka had heard stories from Master Ti, about a mission where the cold froze the older Togruta’s montrals, making everything sound muffled and limiting her spatial awareness.</p><p>“Commander!” The voice—Ahsoka couldn’t even tell who it was, though it sounded familiar—sounded worried, and definitely closer. Ahsoka scooted herself around, blinking spots from her eyes for staring into the heat lamp too long and came face-to-face with her Captain’s helmet.</p><p>“Rex?” she asked, stating the obvious. His bucket tilted to the side, giving him a confused—or worried—air. Ahsoka untucked her legs from under herself and made to stand up, but suddenly Rex was there, pushing her back down gently.</p><p>“I would advise against trying to walk around just yet, Commander,” his voice filtered through his helmet’s respirators, “You likely took a hit to the head on your way down.”</p><p>“Way down?” Ahsoka asked, confused. “Rex, what’s our situation? What <i>happened?” </i></p><p>“Er—how much do you remember, sir?” Rex asked. Ahsoka furrowed her brow-ridge once again, trying to pull clear memories and a timeline from her jumbled thoughts. </p><p>“I—<i>gnnnnnnnnn,”</i> Ahsoka slouched, groaning. She slid her eyes shut and twisted her face as pain throbbed in her head. Rex was probably right; she must have hit her head somewhere.</p><p>“Sir? <i>Commander Tano!”</i> Ahsoka could feel Rex’s worry spike again as he yelled her name and suddenly, instead of the annoying muffled quiet she had been hearing through her frozen montrals, Rex’s voice was deafening. She flinched inwards, but the noise only got worse. His words seemed to ricochet and multiply in her head, assaulting her head and overloading her brain. All Ahsoka could think was <i>why is this so loud now, make it stop, please stop, </i>as she clapped her hands over her montrals in a futile effort to muffle the sound and curled herself into a ball. The blanket slid off her shoulders as she did so but Ahsoka couldn’t spare the effort to care about her exposed arms and back on a snow planet right now; all she needed was for the sound to <i>stop, oh please stop, go back to being muffled, muffled is better—</i></p><p>“Commander?” Rex’s voice was far, far quieter than it was before. “Commander, are you alright?” Ahsoka could feel more worry almost wafting off him, mixed with apprehension. Cautiously, he grabbed the blanket from where is had slid off Ahsoka and onto the ground and pulled it back up over her shoulders. The noise had stopped pinging around in Ahsoka’s montrals and brain now, and she almost felt… <i>raw; </i>like any loud noise could damage her hearing and spatial awareness, maybe permanently. </p><p>“’S jus’ loud, Rex,” Ahsoka murmured, shaking her head slightly to try and get rid of the last vestiges of dizziness. “What did you ask again?” Rex gave her another concerned look—or at least Ahsoka inferred it was concerned, as all she could see was the tilt of his bucket—but continued.</p><p>“I was just asking you how much you remembered of this mission.” It seemed like Rex was barely speaking, as Ahsoka’s montrals had apparently decided to swing back to <i>no, you can’t hear anything</i> as opposed to <i>you will hear everything.</i> </p><p><i>Right,</i> Ahsoka thought. <i>What </i>did <i>she remember? </i></p><p>“We were on a mission,” Ahsoka began slowly, remembering things as she talked. “Skyguy, Master Obi-wan, Cody, and you and I were sent out to Svet-Ki by the council to investigate rumours of a non-allied superweapon being built,” Ahsoka paused, trying to work out a timeline. “But… we didn’t find anything, did we? If I’m remembering correctly, the rumours proved to be false.” She looked to Rex, who nodded in confirmation. “Then…” Ahsoka trailed off. “we were flying to the hyperspace rings, and… I get kind of fuzzy after that. What happened to the ship?” Rex nodded again.</p><p>“I believe the engine may have overheated, sir,” Rex explained his theory in nearly a whisper. Ahsoka frowned, not because of what Rex was saying, but rather because she could only hear about half of what he said due to her frozen montrals. She tapped her montrals against the heel of her hand like she was trying to get a busted datapad to work again.</p><p>“Rex, could you speak up a little?” Ahsoka cut the Captain’s theory off. “I can’t—I can’t hear very well. I think the cold is affecting my montrals.” Rex’s bucket jerked in conformation.</p><p>“I think the engine overheated, Commander.” There, that was better. “I don’t believe it was sabotaged, though.” Ahsoka nodded, processing their situation a little better.</p><p>“What about Master Skywalker, and Master Kenobi and Cody? Where are they?”</p><p>“We all went down, sir; parts of your ship hit the other two. I’ve been trying to establish contact with them, but your comm is smashed and I’m working on repairing mine,” Rex answered, holding up his bracer with a wire sticking out. Ahsoka looked down at her own comm; it was indeed smashed beyond all repair.</p><p>“How close are you to finishing?” she asked.</p><p>“Nearly done, sir. I can have it working in a minute.”</p><p>“Alright, Rex,” Ahsoka nodded, tired, and Rex went back to fixing his comm. She thought for a moment, then huffed a laugh which made the Captain look back at her.</p><p>“Well,” She said, dry humour lacing her words, “if it was just an engine failure, then at least we don’t have to worry about being hunted down.” Rex let out a small snicker.</p><p>“We’d be dead from the cold before anything came to kill us, Commander.”</p><p>“Then we’d better find a civilization soon,” Ahsoka shot back playfully.</p><p>“I think we passed lights on our way down,” Rex said, connecting a wire in his comm, “it would be back a few kliks the way we crashed, but the trek should be doable.” </p><p>“I guess that’s our best bet, Captain,” Ahsoka agreed after a moment of consideration. “We should probably leave soon, before my montrals freeze solid.” Rex’s bucket dipped in agreement as he closed the cover of his embedded commlink.</p><p>“Okay, it should work now,” he said, reattaching the bracer and pressed a button and raised his arm to his helmet. “General Skywalker? General, do you read me?”<br/>
The other end of the comm was static for a few tense moments, then,</p><p>
  <i>“Rex?” </i>
</p><p>Anakin’s voice was cutting out a little and he sounded exhausted and bleary, like he just woke up, but he was there. Ahsoka let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. <i>Thank the Force. </i>She saw Rex’s shoulders slump in relief as well.</p><p>“Skyguy!” Ahsoka leaned around Rex so her voice would carry better. “Master, are you okay?”</p><p><i>“Yeah… ‘m fine, Snips,”</i> his voice cut out a little, but it sounded better. <i>“Are you guys okay?” </i> Ahsoka looked up at Rex, and saw his visor staring back at her.</p><p>“Just cold and a bit sore, Master,” Ahsoka said, turning her attention back to the comm. “Not too banged-up; I have Rex to thank for that.”</p><p><i>“That’s good,” </i>Anakin spoke, and Ahsoka agreed wholeheartedly.<i> “Are Obi-wan and Cody with you guys?”</i></p><p>“No, sir,” Rex responded before Ahsoka could, “I think they crashed in a different direction.”</p><p><i>“Alright,” </i>Anakin muttered, sounding to be deep in thought. <i>“Alright, I’ll try to comm him and get back to you.” </i>With that, the connection cut off. Rex lowered his arm and Ahsoka scooted closer to the heat lamp and tilted her head forward, trying to warm her montrals up more. They sat in comfortable silence, both content with the lack of conversation.</p><p><i>“Rex?” </i>came Anakin’s slightly muffled voice a few minutes later. Quickly, the Captain raised his comm to his bucket again. </p><p>“I’m here, sir.”</p><p><i>“Obi-wan says he and Cody crashed in a forest and are both relatively unharmed.” </i>This time, Ahsoka could feel the weight of Rex’s worry being released. <i>“He also said that he saw a village in the distance before they crashed, and they could probably make it there.”</i></p><p>“We saw one as well, sir,” Rex responded, “a village. It could be the same one.”</p><p>“Did you see any lights, Master?” Ahsoka cut in.</p><p><i>“If I just head back the way I crashed, I’m pretty sure I saw something. Either way, it’ll be easier for me to feel for life-forms going back that way. You and Rex head for the village and I’ll tell Obi-wan and Cody to do the same.”</i> She nodded, thoughtful.</p><p>“Don’t worry about us. You be careful, Master.” Ahsoka couldn’t help but worry about her Master, even if he <i>was </i>the Chosen One.</p><p>She heard a little laugh on Anakin’s end of the line.<i> “Aren’t I always, Snips?” </i>Ahsoka let out an overdramatic groan, unable to wipe the fond smile off her face.</p><p>“Don’t make me answer that, Master.” The connection winked out again, and Rex lowered the comm and stood up to grab the heater.</p><p>“I wasn’t able to salvage much from the ship besides your blanket and this heater.” He hefted the heater slightly as he mentioned it, apology lacing his tone.</p><p>“I don’t think we want to be hiking in the snow with too much gear anyway, Rexter.” Ahsoka pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders and used her palms to push herself up to her feet, swaying slightly. Rex bent down and grabbed her sabers from where they were lying together in a little man-made pocket of packed snow and handed them to Ahsoka who took them gratefully, feeling their familiar weight as she clipped them onto her belt. She gave Rex a nod of gratitude and small smile, and he inclined his helmet in response.</p><p>Ahsoka turned and took one last look at the path of destruction that led to the wreckage of their ship. “Radio’s not working, then?” she asked Rex, looking back at the clone. He shook his head, and Ahsoka felt a spike of amusement radiating from his direction.</p><p>“No, sir.”</p><p>“Let’s get going, then,” she turned around and followed the Captain away from the wreckage.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div><p>Really, Obi-wan only had his lightsaber out for the extra light; the light from the stars and moons became more and more muted with each step he and his Commander took into the woods towards the settlement. Obi-wan had taken the time to make the flaming wreckage of their starfighter was fully extinguished so to not spread the fires, using the Force to dump a cloud of snow onto it with abandon. </p><p>The comm from Anakin carrying the news of the other three’s as-well-as-could-be-expected condition and a realistic plan with an attainable destination released a non-insignificant amount of tension from his and his Commander’s shoulders; to say he was <i>relieved </i>to hear that Anakin, Ahsoka and Captain Rex had escaped their crashes unharmed was an understatement. After waking up more or less in Cody’s arms, having a cut on his head cleaned by the clone, it seemed that Obi-wan had sustained the worst of the injuries.</p><p>He just hoped that they were all headed to the same settlement.</p><p>Obi-wan pushed a branch out of the way of his head, holding it in place so Cody had time to register it and duck under it before he let go. A small pile of snow that had been previously resting on the needles came flying off, splattering into the nearly knee-high snow.</p><p>Time began to blur together as Obi-wan and Cody continued walking through the forest in silence, snow crunching lightly under their boots. Twice now, Obi-wan silently cursed the chunks of snow that were now melting inside of his bootliners with language that would have made Hondo Ohnaka proud. He didn’t stop, not wanting to keep himself and Cody outside any longer than they needed to. Intellectually, Obi-wan knew that Cody would have agreed to stop to let Obi-wan lean against a tree and shake the snow out of his boots, which was precisely why he didn’t bring it up.</p><p>The only correct adjective for their trek, he thought, was <i>trudge. </i>Their pace slowed as Obi-wan tried to take each step with precision, so to keep as much snow as possible out of his boots. Cody was following behind him, stepping in the tracks Obi-wan left behind him. Obi-wan knew that Cody hated ice planets, and he felt slightly bad for dragging him to and then stranding him on one. Cody, he knew, would dismiss his dislike with something along the lines of <i>we clones were trained for all temperatures, sir, I’ll be fine, </i>or, on a bad day, <i>I’ll manage.</i> </p><p>Obi-wan personally agreed with his Commander’s sentiment. He would prefer almost any other climate to a frozen tundra, where the cold seem to cut him to the bone no matter how many layers he was wearing. </p><p>A strong whistling and creaking of wood from up above made Obi-wan pause and look up, cringing at the strength of the wind and thankful that the dense trees around them blocked most of it. There was a dark blob fast approaching, which Obi-wan identified as snow falling off the tops of the trees much like it had the branch he flicked. </p><p>Not even thinking about it, Obi-wan held up a hand and flicked his wrist to the side, letting the Force flow through him and take hold of the rather large pile of snow. It all slid to his right, and Obi-wan noticed his mistake only when Cody let out a <i>squawk</i> that was more undignified than anything else Obi-wan had heard from him in their nearly two years serving together.</p><p><i>“Sir!” </i>Obi-wan whipped around to see Cody with an arm protectively over his head, which now had a large pile of snow on it. Immediately, Obi-wan’s heart dropped with guilt—he thought Cody was standing on his other side, he should have <i>sensed </i>his commander switching places, if not <i> heard, </i> so <i>why didn’t he? </i> The Jedi dismissed the idea that the cold had affected him this much but didn’t spare any more time to think about the reason at this moment.</p><p>“Cody, I am so sorry,” Obi-wan apologized, almost rushing to brush snow off the taller man’s shoulders. “Are you alright?”</p><p>“It—went down my back, sir,” Cody explained, which was most likely why the Commander was still standing ramrod straight. His voice sounded slightly muffled, like he was clenching his teeth. </p><p>“Well, I’m afraid I can’t help you with that, Commander,” Obi-wan joked in good humour with a small sympathetic grimace on his face, laying a hand on the clone’s shoulder. “Would you like to stop for a moment and clear it out?”</p><p>“I’ll be fine, sir,” Cody reassured. “It’s just snow. I’ve survived worse.”</p><p>“Be that as it may, you deserve better than me dumping snow down your back on an ice planet.” Obi-wan was only half joking; sometimes he found himself wishing that he could do something to take away every inconvenience and problem that his Commander insisted was “fine.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t want to serve with anyone else, sir.” Obi-wan was almost shocked by the utter feeling of sincerity behind his Commander’s words; Cody truly believed what he said with all his being. A warm feeling blossomed in Obi-wan’s torso, and suddenly the cold of the planet didn’t bother him all that much.</p><p>“Thank you, Cody,” he responded quietly. Obi-wan left his hand on Cody’s pauldron perhaps a few moments longer than was strictly <i>platonic, </i>savouring the proximity before turning to continue into the woods with an almost shy smile on his face and the feeling of warmth still in his chest.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div><p>It was just Anakin’s luck that he crashed alone; Obi-wan had Cody, Ahsoka was with Rex and Anakin was kept company only by the freezing cold wind that wormed its way under his layers of robes and tunics and nipped at his skin. He hoped that Ahsoka had adequate jackets or blankets; her usual outfit was less than suited for this climate.</p><p>Looking at his starfighter again, Anakin could tell it was beyond repair. Sure, only a relatively small piece of Ahsoka and Rex’s ship had hit his, but the crash had crumpled the nose into the cockpit. Anakin was honestly surprised it hadn’t blown up yet, but he lived for small mercies of the Force. He was pretty sure he was standing on a frozen pond, though, so he didn’t want to take his chances.</p><p>Rolling to his feet from where he flopped down in the snow—probably a bad idea, but he was so <i>tired—</i>he turned away from the wreckage and began the long trek back to…</p><p>Where? Where was he heading back to? All he had to go on was the small cluster of lights he<i> thought </i>he saw and his Force sensitivity. Not great odds, but Anakin had beaten worse odds before, and he could do it again.</p><p>He <i>would.</i></p><p>The treeline that he was approaching was uniformly straight, which added to his theory that he was standing on a frozen lake. The ice probably wasn’t going to melt anytime soon, but he still picked up the pace until he passed the first few trees. </p><p>As he made his way deeper into the forest, the light from the sky quickly became scarce and Anakin had no night vision gear. He grabbed his lightsaber from where it was clipped onto his belt and ignited it. With his eyes adjusted to the darkness, the white-blue light washing over the trees was more than enough to see.</p><p>As he hiked, he made sparse stops to meditate for a moment, taking the time to fully reach out and feel for the warm Force signatures of the village. Meditation was never his <i>thing; </i>he couldn’t slip in and out of the mindset like Obi-wan could. Because of this, coupled with the wintry weather he was only able to keep himself in a meditative state long enough to find a general direction to continue in; but that was enough. As he got closer, the path forward through the trees became clearer and the promising glow in the Force of thousands of happy people became brighter.</p><p>Sighing and curling in on himself a little as another wind wove its way through the trees, Anakin pushed on.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Trek</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex, Obi-wan and Cody are making their way to the village. Nobody likes snow after this.</p><p>I'm so sorry this is technically friday, but I'll try to have a chapter up once-twice a week, aiming for sundays and thursdays! Enjoy!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They weren’t walking for long before the wind started to pick up, sweeping up the top layer of snow and throwing it into the air with a whistle that ebbed like the tides. Soon, Ahsoka’s pain began to flow with it. She had never minded <i>wind</i> by itself before—it was just the drop in temperature that a breeze usually brings that she disliked—and it didn’t bother her montrals. Sure, Togruta had better hearing than humans, but her increased sensitivity to sound never bothered her before. Why would it? She had all her life to be used to it. But now, with the freezing of her montrals likely accelerated by the wind, she <i>noticed.</i></p><p>They walked in silence for what Ahsoka guessed to be a klik, she didn’t really know. Her montrals had been growing steadily colder and her hearing was declining with it; Rex could have tried to make small talk and she wouldn’t be any wiser. </p><p>As they got farther and farther out into the tundra, the pain only got worse. With every wind that blew across the open land another wave of pain crashed through her head until even the small breezes became a thing of dread. </p><p>She put her hands on her montrals, trying to do <i>something,</i> but the blanket began slipping off her shoulders, so her arms came back to gripping the edge of the blanket. It was just a little bit of wind, nothing even <i>remotely</i> new or challenging, so why did every breath of wind hurt?</p><p>The answer was obvious, of course; the ice and subsequent freezing montrals. Ahsoka was determined to push on, however, until a strong gale of wind that had even Rex staggering slightly sent her to her knees, hands on her montrals and nearly screaming in pain. She tucked head down as far as possible without laying in the snow, breathing rapidly and tears sparking in her eyes as another whisper of wind sent a spike of pain through her montrals. Ahsoka squeezed her eyes shut, taking a deep shuddering breath and trying to get control of her breathing like Skyguy and Master Obi-wan taught her, but it didn’t <i>help.</i> Now, even the gentlest gust of wind had Ahsoka at the verge of tears and <i>why, oh why did her hearing pick </i>now <i>to become super sensitive, why did they have to crash in the tundra, the wind wouldn’t be this bad in the forest, why—</i></p><p>She was vaguely aware of Rex crouching over her, his worry in the Force palpable. Then, suddenly, there was a small weight on her montrals, and the wind seemed to die down a little. Ahsoka took a deep breath, successfully calming herself this time, and looked up at the Captain of the 501st.</p><p>“Commander?” Rex asked quietly, like he was unsure of how loud to make his voice. “Commander, what happened?” Ahsoka put a hand up to her montrals, finding that there was a blanket folded over and wrapped around them. She gave Rex a small smile of gratitude.</p><p>“The wind, I think. It’s never bothered me before, but with the cold affecting my montrals, I guess it did this time.” She offered another shaky smile.</p><p>“We’d better get going then, sir.” He stood and offered Ahsoka a hand up, which she took. Rex had tied the blanket in a knot in the back, so it didn’t fly off when the next wind blew. It did its job as well; Ahsoka could barely hear the piercing whistle of the wind and could focus on something other than the now-receding pain in her head. She gave Rex a small nod of reassurance, and he turned around and continued down the path they were making.</p><p>Even though Togruta were more suited for warmer climates, Ahsoka had to admit that the planet was beautiful. Not just on a surface level, either; now that Ahsoka wasn’t biased by the pain in her montrals, its Force signature gave her a feeling of peacefulness and serenity, like the war had never touched this planet and its people. The overwhelming feelings of <i>quiet and calm</i> very much matched with the landscape stretching before her.</p><p>It looked like a fresh snow, glistening in the light from Svet-Ki’s four moons and unmarred except for the tracks the pair were leaving and the trees they were headed for. The sky was filled with so many stars that, combined with the light from the moons and reflection on the snow, made seeing not a problem at all. Ahsoka <i>really</i> wanted to pause and take a moment to gaze at the stars.</p><p>There were small patches of trees breaking up the rolling white landscape, and when Ahsoka and Rex neared one, she realized that there were little decorations hanging from a few of the branches. Among the lower branches, there were slips of neatly cut fabric tied to the tree. Ahsoka crouched down to read one of them, aware of Rex studying a decoration above her. <i>For Saulgriezi,</i>it read, <i>I hope that mama gives me infinite hot chocolate and <strike>vig</strike> <strike>zvigne</strike> zvaigņe-tevs comes to give papa and me new datapads and I want to light one of the calendar fires this year.</i> Ahsoka laughed a little to herself; <i>zvaigņe-tevs</i> was written much neater than the rest of the note, like as if an adult had written it for their child. The bottom line was squished in as well, as the excited child had likely run out of space to write their requests.</p><p>A tap on the top of her nearly numb montrals jerked Ahsoka out of her own little reality. She looked above her and saw Rex looking at the slip over her montrals. </p><p>“Commander, we should keep moving. No sense being out in the cold longer than we need to be.” Rex didn’t sound like he was talking <i>that</i> much quieter, and yet Ahsoka could barely hear him. He straightened up and Ahsoka followed suit, letting go of the fabric strip and watching the branch bounce back into place.<br/>
The two continued their trek, maintaining silence for another indeterminable stretch of time. As they neared another patch of trees that Ahsoka could barely tell apart from what seemed to be the main forest, Rex suddenly came to a dead halt. Ahsoka watched him slowly put down the emergency heater and move a hand to his holsters; the next moment he had both DC-17s up and in a defensive position. Ahsoka quickly looked from the Captain to the woods and back again before narrowing her eyes and grabbing both lightsaber hilts from her belt. She jumped over the Captain—who didn’t even flinch, probably too used to Jedi acrobatics to be curious—and tucked herself into a tight flip on instinct before landing in a ready stance, blades yet to be ignited.</p><p>“Did you see something?” She asked in a low voice, not moving from her crouched position. It was <i>frustrating,</i> not being able to hear. She was still maturing so she knew that her spatial awareness would only improve for the next decade or two, and now that it was gone, she realized just how much she used it subconsciously. Instead, she reached out with the Force, feeling for any hostile Force signatures in the vicinity and coming up empty. Rex hesitated a moment before responding.</p><p>“Thought I did.” Ahsoka heard the muffled <i>shunk</i> of his blasters being sheathed—most likely with a twirl, even though there was no one watching—and a moment later Ahsoka relaxed her position and reattached her lightsabers to her belt. “Come on, we’re almost there.”</p><p>They continued forward, this time with Ahsoka in front. They continued past the patch of trees that she could still feel Rex’s distrust of in the Force and neared the treeline Ahsoka saw earlier; she didn’t know how much longer it would take to reach the village and didn’t want to ask Rex. It couldn’t be too far. Ahsoka could see the slow of the lights that she <i>dearly</i> hoped were from the village against the sky in the distance.</p><p>A cold breeze bit through a gap in the fabric wrapped around her montrals and she reached up to adjust it, pulling the fabric a little lower and tucking it under the knot Rex had tied. The material wasn’t the best—it was a mass-produced blanket, after all; one meant for spending days on the front lines. It was kind of scratchy and Ahsoka could tell it apart from the blankets the men used on one of the few other ice planets she had been to for an extended time with the 501st, which were much thicker. Still, it did its job and she really couldn’t argue.</p><p>As the wind picked up a little, Ahsoka squinted her eyes against the snowflakes that were being blown into her face. She put up a protective hand in front of her face and tilted her head downwards, occasionally looking back up to check their progress towards the trees. Shivering violently, she pulled the second blanket tighter around her shoulders and down her biceps as much as she could (which wasn’t a lot—wind kept blowing right in given the position of her arm and the direction of the wind). This diamond cutouts on her thighs really weren’t doing her any favours, either—not that the rest of her leggings were that great at keeping her warm in subzero temperatures, but it was better than nothing. </p><p>Laughing to herself, Ahsoka conjured up an image of her fourteen-year-old self in this situation, with her tube top and somehow <i>thinner</i> tights. She was sure she would have already frozen solid, or at the very least been passed out and left to poor Rex to carry her through the snow himself.</p><p>Sufficiently entertained with and empowered by the image of her younger twig of a self getting quite literally blown away by the winds, she trudged on, stubbornly focused on the slowly nearing trees ahead of them.</p><p><i>I hope Skyguy is doing okay on his own,</i> she thought. Ahsoka couldn’t imagine what shape she would be in if she didn’t have Rex with her, protective as always. Master Obi-wan had his Commander with him for backup and company; Anakin really had drawn the short straw for the crash.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Obi-wan heard the familiar <i>tok tok tok</i> of plastoid hitting plastoid a few moments after felt a sharp spike of annoyance from Cody, disrupting his Commander’s usual serene, steady Force signature. He turned and looked at the clone, finding him aggressively hitting his helmet against the heel of his hand. Cody looked up at Obi-wan, and the Jedi felt his Commander’s brief spike of anger fade quickly, replaced with an undertone of embarrassment and apology.<p>“Sorry, sir,” Cody grimaced, and Obi-wan was more than in-tune enough with his Commander’s emotions to guess the expression on his face. He paused for a moment before elaborating. “I think my bucket sustained a bit of damage in the crash.” </p><p>Guiltily, Obi-wan wondered if there was a branch in the pile of snow he dumped on the Commander.</p><p>“Your helmet sustained damage, or you did, Cody?” Obi-wan knew that his Commander didn’t break easily, yet he couldn’t help the flare of worry (and <i>panic)</i> that popped up whenever his Commander was in danger or hurt. He took a quick moment to thank the Force that Anakin wasn’t here; he would never hear the end of it. Cody’s bucket tilted to the side in question.</p><p>“You’re not invulnerable, you know, Commander.” Obi-wan’s face softened into one of affection, one that conveyed emotions that were <i>entirely</i> not appropriate for him to be feeling for his Commander, much less as a Jedi.</p><p>But he would deal with that <i>later,</i> he told himself; just like every other time looking at Cody seemed to lighten his shoulders and ease the lines in his face. </p><p>Obi-wan held out a hand towards his Commander’s helmet. </p><p>“May I?” the clone nodded, understanding Obi-wan’s intent to check for any possibly overlooked damage. Cody inclined his head slightly to allow Obi-wan easier reach to the corresponding temple area on his helmet. Obi-wan was not a <i>short</i> man by any standard, but watching his Padawan grow to be “an inch and a half taller, Master” and spending all his days around men who all stood <i>exactly</i> two inches taller than him and seemed even more so with the added height from their boots and helmets made Obi-wan endlessly annoyed. Now, he only had Ahsoka beat in terms of height, and Obi-wan had a feeling that wouldn’t last long.</p><p>Well, it only annoyed him when Anakin would put an elbow on Obi-wan’s head and leaned against him dramatically, which was every time the two were separated for more than a few rotations and usually included a comment about how “you must be shrinking in your old age, Master.” Obi-wan didn’t so much mind the height gap between himself and his Commander, for reasons he continually chose to ignore. </p><p>His fingers connected with the freezing cold plastoid of Cody’s helmet and Obi-wan closed his eyes, breathing in the bitterly cold air and feeling around his Commander’s head for damage. It only took a moment for Obi-wan to conclude that the damage was indeed in the HUD, familiarity speeding up the process quite a bit.</p><p>Obi-wan opened his eyes, gazing at Cody’s visor painted in 212th gold, as the battalion had dubbed it. There was a little pattern on the top that Obi-wan had never noticed before, most likely due to the placement of said design and the clone’s taller height. It was simple in design, only a few thin white strips showing through the paint so that a symmetrical geometric swirl was formed in the middle of the visor. It was small, barely noticeable, and it made Obi-wan smile a little that Cody took the time to paint such a fine decoration where it would barely be noticed. He didn’t know why the thought of his Commander taking the time to sit down, most likely with his brothers, to paint the design, hunched over, concentrated—</p><p>Obi-wan swallowed, clearing his mind, and dropped his hand. “You were right, Cody, the damage is in your helmet.” Cody straightened up and nodded, adjusting his bucket slightly. </p><p>“Thank you, sir.” Obi-wan smiled slightly at his Commander, letting the smile fall slightly as he turned around and continued forwards, processing all his <i>inappropriate</i> thoughts about the clone.</p><p>But, like every time his thoughts strayed down this path, he ignored it and moved on.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Anakin continued pushing his way through the uneven snow, lightsaber lit behind his back to provide light but not blind him. The whistling of the wind around him and in the treetops had turned into more of an eerie noise, rather unlike anything he was used to on Coruscant or Tattooine. Anakin had been to many other types of planets, of course—what with the war and all—but something seemed off on this ice ball, and Anakin didn’t care for it.<p>A branch above him suddenly decided to dump snow on his back and Anakin jumped and swore with vigor. His voice rang through the trees, almost echo-y in the emptiness. Colourful language continued to stream out of his mouth as Anakin deactivated his lightsaber and desperately tried to dislodge the few chunks of snow that were caught in his collar and making their way down his back. </p><p>With all the snow shaken out from his robes, Anakin curled his shoulders upwards and put his flesh hand over the cold spot on his neck, rolling it out. He re-ignited his lightsaber with one final, loud curse, listening for a moment as the breeze carried it through the trees before he resumed his battle through the forest.</p><p>Even the crunching of the snow seemed louder under his feet now.</p><p><i>That was what was</i> off <i>about this planet,</i> Anakin realized, then felt dumb for coming to the conclusion so late; there were barely any living things here. As both a Jedi and the Chosen One, Anakin was particularly in-tune with the Force signatures and steady ebb and flow of life that came off so many living beings. Living on Coruscant had been a challenge when Anakin had first come to the temple; he was raised on Tattooine and had grown used to the rather empty feeling of being around so few people and plants.</p><p>Things had changed since he was a boy, though, including the number of life-forms he spent his time around, willingly or not. The livelihood of the Force, first on Coruscant and then with wherever he was deployed with Ahsoka and his men, was always seemed energetic and bright wherever Anakin ended up, and now it just… <i>wasn’t.</i> It was a rather jarring change, and Anakin could almost feel the emptiness lingering inside his mind. </p><p>It wasn’t that there was no life on this planet; Anakin could feel the plants and life at the very edge of his senses, but it felt like they were all frozen in ice, dulled to the point where they might as well not have been there in the first place. </p><p>Even in his nine years on Tattooine, Anakin had never felt this <i>alone.</i> </p><p>Or cold, for that matter. He <i>really</i> hated ice planets, as well as desert planets, but in very different ways and for very different reasons.</p><p>He continued silently for a bit, before starting to hum a song he heard from Obi-wan to try and distract himself from the feeling of loneliness eating away at him from the inside. Anakin heard the next wind making its way in from the tundra before he felt it, and instinctually dove to hide behind a tree. The tree barely did anything and the wind still bit at any exposed skin of Anakin’s and he nearly clapped his hands over his ears to protect them before remembering the lightsaber in his hand and stopping himself. Instead, he raised his left shoulder and pressed his left ear into that, switched his lightsaber to his left hand and used he right to cover the other ear. There, that was better.</p><p>The wind didn’t last long, and Anakin uncovered his ears and stepped out from his cover when he couldn’t hear the whistling anymore. Sighing, he swung his lightsaber behind his back into the reverse grip he had seen Ahsoka use many times, though it felt unnatural with only one lightsaber, and almost continued when he heard something from up ahead, where the wind was blowing far more strongly.</p><p>It was a light tinkling sound, many of them, that sounded almost magical. Anakin glanced around, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. It sounded like something he had heard before, but not often enough to remember immediately. The tinkling continued and Anakin followed it, picking up his pace slightly. His long strides turned into a light jog, listening intently to the noise—<i>what was it coming from?</i> The longer he listened to it, the more familiar the noise became and the more <i>frustrated </i>he got.</p><p>The ringing was quite loud now, and it seemed to come from all around him. The sound faded as the wind did so and Anakin looked around, trying to find the noisemakers. Just as he decided that it was unimportant and started to move on, another breeze ruffled the treetops, and the cacophony of tinkling began again. Anakin jerked to an abrupt halt and glanced upwards, squinting. Way up near the tops of the trees he could just barely make out small, metallic objects sprinkled about. If the moonlight hadn't reflected off the smooth surface, he probably wouldn't have noticed them at all. Curious, he waved his lightsaber about a little, carful not to cut any trees, and the reflection shifted accordingly on all the objects. Anakin narrowed his eyes in concentration, trying to remember what they were called, he knew what was making the noise only just forgot the name—<i>oh, what were they called— </i></p><p><i>Bells! </i>The word flew into his mind as another wind passed and the bells jingled again. Anakin raised a hand and focused on just one, giving it a gentle tug until it slipped free of the branch it was tied to with another light tinkle and flew into his hand. It was gold in colour, Anakin noted, before raising it to the side of his head and giving it a small test shake; the same jingle rang in his ear. He looked at the bell one more time before tying it back to a branch that was hanging over his head. The knot took a few moments, with his flesh hand frozen and clumsy and <i>not responding to what Anakin told it to do.</i></p><p>Once the bell was hung, Anakin continued towards the village, the sound of the bells’ light tinkling following him through the forest.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Cody’s goal of <i>not getting snow under his armour, </i>while noble, was a long shot. He knew that from the moment their starfighter crashed, his sparse experience in snowy climates serving him well. It seemed that even General Kenobi wasn’t spared from snow under his robes and armour, judging by the way he tried to subtly shake out his boots with every other step yet stubbornly refused to stop and <i>properly</i> dump his greaves out.<p>The snow that the general had accidentally dumped down his back then proceeded to profusely apologize for (which <i>didn’t</i> cause Cody’s cheeks to heat up, <i>definitely not—)</i> had mostly melted, becoming a cold wet patch and then a temperate wet patch over the course of a few agonizing minutes. There was, in fact, a piece of wood in the snow that his General had mistakenly deflected onto him, but there was no way that Cody would tell him that. His General had enough to think about, Cody refused to add to that.</p><p>The rows of snow-covered trees began to merge together, and Cody lost track of the distance they continued towards the village, which was beginning to feel more like one of the few non-bloody Mandalorian legends Jango had told the first batches of CCs back on Kamino: incredible, yet too good to be true. Now, it was only the skills written in Cody’s DNA and training beaten into his head by the begrudging trainers that kept him following his General towards the fabled town.</p><p>Well, not the <i>only </i>thing, but Cody very deliberately steered his thoughts away from that path as soon as he realized where it was headed. General Kenobi was his commanding officer and a Jedi, both of which were very good reasons to keep his feelings firmly to <i>himself.</i> Cody was just another clone, but the General was irreplaceable. <i>His </i>General.</p><p>“Cody,” General Kenobi’s Coruscanti accent brought him back to the snowy planet, just in time to register his General’s hand on his shoulder pulling him sharply to the left to avoid a tree. Kriff. Cody needed to get a grip on his thoughts; it wouldn’t do to have a Marshall Commander so distracted he nearly walked into a tree. At least he had a plethora of easy covers at the ready: <i>my apologies General, I’m tired,</i> or <i>my HUD didn’t register the tree.</i></p><p>No, even in his exhausted and cold state Cody realized what flimsy excuses those were.</p><p>“Cody?” And he had zoned out again. He turned to look at his General, who was staring at him with his brows furrowed in confusion, a lock of his usually neat hair falling into the centre of his forehead.</p><p>Cody actually had to <i>resist </i>the urge to brush it back into place.</p><p>“My apologies, General,” he deadpanned, to tired to modulate his voice or elaborate on an excuse that didn’t involve his General. Who was a foot away, staring him in the eyes.</p><p>Cody was suddenly <i>very</i> grateful for his bucket.</p><p>General Kenobi sighed, his entire posture slumping in a way that made Cody want to eliminate whatever the cause of his General’s pain was. Unfortunately, Cody was pretty sure that he was at least partially responsible for that pain.</p><p>“I suppose we’re both very exhausted, now.” Cody could not only hear the General’s exhaustion in his voice, but see it around his eyes and in the slightest downward tilt of his lips, and Cody suddenly found himself wishing his General would make use of the <i>sleep when you can, eat when you can</i> part of the unspoken rules in the GAR. You never know when you could end up stranded on an unforgiving ice planet.</p><p>“I don’t think it’s much further, Cody. The Force signatures from the residents of the village are getting stronger and stronger,” his General continued, seemingly determined to look on the bright side of their situation.</p><p>“You mean this village actually exists?” Cody muttered sarcastically before he could stop himself, too tired to filter his thoughts properly. As soon as the words left his mouth, he flinched, wishing he weren’t so brash. General Kenobi was a good General, he most likely wouldn’t send Cody back to Kamino for reconditioning, but at the moment he was honestly more worried about what his General would think of him rather than what he would do about him.</p><p>General Kenobi’s laugh startled him out of his spiraling thoughts, and it was a welcome distraction. Cody couldn’t help but smile under his bucket as his General’s head tipped backwards, a wide smile on his face. General Kenobi wasn’t <i>stoic</i> like the way some of his brothers described their Jedi, but Cody had rarely seen his General <i>laugh</i> the way he was now.</p><p>Still smiling but more under control, General Kenobi put a hand on Cody’s shoulder, and part of Cody screamed at himself that <i>yes, that would be considered affectionate.</i> Cody squashed that little bit of hope with vigor.</p><p>“Yes Cody, the village does exist, and we’re getting closer.” </p><p>It was relieving to hear that, and Cody felt somewhat re-energized by his General. He smiled under his helmet even though the General couldn’t see it and nodded sharply. “We couldn’t get there soon enough, sir.”</p><p>“I wholeheartedly agree, Commander.” With his General turning away from him once again to begin their trek anew, Cody did his best to remember every line of his General’s face, how his eyes sparkled when he laughed, how his lips curled upwards in the smile he gave Cody at the end. </p><p>Yes, this was a man that Cody was <i>more</i> than willing to be stuck on an ice planet with.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Final Stretch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ahsoka and Rex arrive at the village, and complications ensue. Anakin is suffering alone, and everyone is worried about Ahsoka.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>help me I'm running out of ways to describe the wind</p><p>there's not a lot of codywan in this chapter, I apologize! I'll try to make up for it next time</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Honestly, part of Rex thought they would never live to see the village, so when Commander Tano turned back to look at him and pointed the sky in the distance, saying that there was some light that was most likely from the town, Rex was skeptical. The automatic night vision in his HUD wasn’t behaving properly due to the glare from the snow, but when it was on, there was no trace of the light Commander Tano spoke of. </p><p>Rex decided to take his bucket off for a moment to see the distant light for himself, and instantly regretted it. The frigid wind stung his face and the tips of his immediately froze. He didn’t know how his Commander was <i>surviving,</i> with her montrals and lack of any appropriate clothing for the weather.</p><p>Rex squinted into the distance, giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the lack of vision filters that were on his bucket, and—there it was. Rex smiled a little, somehow forgetting that his bucket wasn’t covering his features anymore. He schooled his face into a more neutral position and glanced down at Commander Tano, who gave him a knowing smile.</p><p>“You’re allowed to be happy, Rex,” she said, and Rex found the smile returning to his face. He nodded in agreement and jammed his bucket back on his head, spirits significantly lifted now that the end was in sight.</p><p>The two resumed walking, and their pace seemed significantly faster than it was before. Commander Tano was doing her best to both secure her blanket around her shoulders and cover her montrals with her hands, usually ending up with one hand grasping the blanket she wore as a cloak and the other holding down the blanket on her montrals when the wind picked up, and pick up it <i>did.</i></p><p>They were only a hundred metres out from the forest when a gust came in from their right side, where they were least protected by the trees. The young Jedi in front of his staggered, and Rex heard her gasp of pain before it was carried off by the wind. She hunched down, taking the blanket from around her arms and adding it to the one on her montrals, tucking the ends into the knot Rex tied. He balked initially<i>—they were on an ice planet for kriff’s sake, Commander, you need that blanket around your arms—</i>but then he remembered how cold the tips of his ears were when he took his bucket off for barely a minute in moderate winds, and how his Commander had fallen to her knees in pain earlier.</p><p>Not knowing what to do, Rex ran around to Commander Tano’s right side, using his body to shelter her from the wind as much as he could. Not <i>hugging </i>her, exactly, but it was a close thing. As a second thought, he held the barely functioning heating lamp near her montrals, hoping that would do something. </p><p>The wind died back down again after a moment, and Rex heard Commander Tano’s breathing even out as she undoubtedly tried to apply some Jedi meditation and breathing exercises. She brought a hand down from her montrals and wiped at her eyes, turning away from him in a (rather feeble) attempt to hide her pain. When she looked back at him, she gave him a smile of reassurance that didn’t quite reach her eyes.</p><p>“I’ll be fine, Rexter. Thank you,” she said in almost a murmur, pushing herself back to her feet and Rex stood up with her. They continued side-by-side until they reached the forest, where Commander Tano took the lead, igniting one of her lightsabers when Svet-Ki’s four moons didn’t provide enough light for her to see by.</p><p>As a branch above them creaked and snapped and the Commander didn’t even react, Rex began to wonder if the damage to her montrals could be permanent. He knew that Togruta had immaculate hearing and used that to hunt and check for danger, but he didn’t know what a Jedi Togruta would do without their hearing. Rex had never heard of the cold affecting a Togruta’s hearing, but then again, he had never done extensive research into Togrutan biology.</p><p>One thing he did remember from a few articles he skimmed was about the Togruta lifestyle, and how the weak were left behind if they couldn’t keep up with the pack. Rex figured the Jedi would never abandon Commander Tano if her condition were permanent, but he wondered if <i>she</i> knew that.</p><p><i>And could her condition even be permanent?</i> His brain continued spiraling. Montrals were hollow, so it would kind of make sense for them to be fine after being defrosted.<i> But weren’t montrals fragile? </i>Rex thought he remembered reading that reconstructing and fixing damaged montrals was incredibly difficult for the exact same reasons.</p><p>Either way, Commander Tano was a Jedi, and he was pretty sure there were healers at the temple. If the condition did turn out to be permanent, could the Jedi do more to fix her hearing and spatial awareness? Could Commander Tano use the Force as some sort of substitute for hearing? Rex really needed to learn the uses and limits of the Force.</p><p>“What’s on your mind, Rexter?” the Commander’s voice was unnaturally loud as turned her head slightly, most likely because she couldn’t hear how loudly she was speaking. “I can feel you worrying.” <i>Kriff, </i>he had been projecting. He debated telling Commander Tano his thoughts for a fleeting moment, eventually deciding that he had nothing to gain by lying.</p><p>“Sir, could you sustain permanent damage to your montrals from the cold?” He asked, hesitantly. The Commander shrugged.</p><p>“It depends on the conditions and duration, I think. How long has it been since we crashed?” Rex checked the analog clock in the corner of his HUD.</p><p>“A little under eleven hours, sir.” The Commander frowned a little, and Rex was sure she could feel his worry spiking again.</p><p>“Does your armour record temperature?” She asked, pulling the blanket a little tighter around her montrals. Rex pushed a button on his bracer, toggling through a few screens until he his HUD projected the outside temperature. Rex was both annoyed and grateful that the Kaminoans changed the display from <i>four readouts at once </i>to the current multi-screen model in the phase II armour.</p><p>“The equipment may have gotten damaged so it may not be reliable, but it currently says three degrees, sir.”</p><p>“Then…” the Commander trailed off, looking down, folding one arm across her body and hovering the other underneath a chin in a way that was quite reminiscent of General Kenobi. “Then I think it depends on how fast I get treatment and get warm, now. We’d better get to the village soon.” She decided, tone determined. Rex nodded, and she turned and began weaving through the trees with all the grace of a Jedi. He quickly followed behind her, albeit a quite a bit less gracefully. </p><p>Even with his spazzing night vision helmet, Rex could tell the village was getting nearer by the reflection on the trees and the rendering of the scenery—the night vision tended to make things grainy if it wasn’t used in complete or near-total darkness. They walked another few hundred metres, and Rex’s night vision shut off automatically but he really didn’t need it anyway. The trees were starting to thin and there were indeed lights up ahead, even though Rex couldn’t see any houses, or even buildings for that matter.</p><p>The trees disappeared almost completely, save for a few giant ones that completely dwarfed the rest of the forest. Hanging from these trees were lanterns that looked decently sized from a distance, but Rex figured that if he stood by one it would easily be taller than him. They were hanging from chains, Rex could tell, and those chains were wrapped with tiny lights that looked like pinpricks. The tiny lights wrapped all the way up into the trees, and there were many strands that were just hanging down, no lanterns attached. </p><p>As they neared, the path—calling it a<i> path</i> was quite generous—shifted into a short incline before abruptly cutting off. Rex could hear the village before he could see it; excited chatter, laughter and songs in a language he didn’t recognize floated up towards them. <i>Also, </i>Rex noted subconsciously, <i>bells. </i>There were many different bells ringing down there. The Commander made it to the top before Rex could see over, and he heard her gasp and subsequent declaration of wonder. The next second, when Rex too looked over, he decided he<i> wholeheartedly</i> agreed with her sentiment.</p><p>The ledge wasn’t a cliff to a chasm like he thought, but rather a <i>very</i> large crater with an overhang. Rex couldn’t see any empty space inside that<i> didn’t </i>have some sort of house, market stall, or otherwise building. From what Rex could see, his vision somewhat obscured by the decently tall buildings, the roads were arranged in concentric circles with a very, very large, well-decorated and <i>bright </i>tree in the middle plaza area. It wasn’t shaped like the thousands of trees he and Commander Tano passed on their way here; this tree was nearly a perfect, narrow triangular shape with branches all the way to the base of the trunk. And every <i>inch</i> of it was <i>covered</i> in lights or something that reflected all the lights in the vicinity, with another large, bright decoration sitting at the very top.</p><p>Cautiously, Rex leaned forward and looked down beneath them, looking for an empty space where they could jump or rappel down, but there were buildings all the way up to the edge of the crater and seeming to support the overhang a little. <i>Not getting down that way, then. </i>He looked around the crater for another entrance, doing a double take when he saw Commander Tano with her face screwed up in pain and a hand on her montrals out of the corner of his eye.</p><p>“Sir?” he asked, keeping his voice quiet in case the noise disturbed her. She jerked a little and glanced over, face tense. “Are you okay?”</p><p>She nodded, jerking her chin to the village—small city, really—down below. “There’s a lot of people down there,” she explained quietly, even though they had no reason to whisper, “and they’re all loud. Both physically and in the Force. It’s just—a bit overwhelming, what with my montrals and being out in empty tundra with barely any company.” Rex nodded, then paused.</p><p>“Sir, if it causes you this much pain out here, would you be alright in the village?” Rex didn’t see an alternative to going down into the village, but they could work something out if they needed to. The Commander nodded.</p><p>“I don’t think we’ll survive out here much longer, Rexter. There’s an entrance over there.” She pointed to their left, where there was a staircase leading out of the crater a little less than an eighth of the way around the circumference. </p><p>The walk around to the staircase was short and easy compared to the walk from their ship, but still longer than Rex would have liked. For the Commander’s sake, he pretended not to notice when she tried to hide a flinch or seem casual while adjusting the blanket over her montrals. She was a Jedi, and quite capable of taking care of herself. She didn’t need Rex’s worry, but he worried anyways.</p><p>The only way the breeze affected them by the crater was the distant tinkling of the bells way up in the treetops, which Rex greatly preferred to the gales worming their way in between the plates of his armour. Every so often, he would glance back down into the village below, and each time he realized just how unlike any other settlement he had seen before it was. Maybe it was the perpetual winter that surrounded it, making the village something of an oasis, or maybe he was just desperate to get out of the snow and that made the village even more appealing.</p><p><i>Or maybe the decorations,</i> Rex realized as they approached the entrance, whose doorway was covered in a combination of some type of long plant that looked similar in texture to the trees in the surrounding forest and many more lights. The actual entrance was a tunnel carved into the ground with a fairly steep staircase going downwards. The tunnel wasn’t long at all; Rex could see the other end from the top and it was very close. Why the village decided to keep the tunnel was a mystery to the clone Captain, but he guessed it had something to do with these people’s tradition. There were a few candles sitting in various perches along the rock tunnel on the inside, which provided slightly unnecessary light.</p><p>Both he and the Commander paused, on instinct more than preparation against an actual threat, and exchanged a glance. They came to a silent agreement; Commander Tano went in first, unclipping her lightsabers from her belt but not igniting them to provide cover if needed. Rex followed close behind, hands hovering over his deecees. </p><p>“I don’t think we’ll face any hostility here, Rex,” the Commander murmured, almost to herself but more likely that she just didn’t know how quietly she was speaking. Rex agreed. The only word that could describe the village in its entirety was<i> festive,</i> and Commander Tano would have ignited her sabers if she sensed a real threat.</p><p>The tunnel ended and the two made their way down the staircase, taking in the town from a different point of view. The Commander relaxed her stance, her hand falling to her sides, and looked around, almost in wonder. Rex allowed himself a small glance around before focusing back on the main path that was only a dozen or so steps below them, brain flashing back to his lessons on Kamino to <i>never get distracted.</i></p><p>It was hard not to.</p><p>Commander Tano staggered back a step, almost tripping on a stair. Rex’s arm shot out of its own accord, hand wrapping around the Commander’s shoulder to steady her. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, knuckles turning a very pale shade of orange as her grip tightened on her sabers. Rex heard a high-pitched <i>trill,</i> almost—certainly not human—emanate from the back of her throat a moment before she sat down heavily on the stair. Rex followed her down, stepping forward a few steps so he was sitting on the same stair. He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, but it was almost like she sensed his intention.</p><p>“’M fine, Rex. Jus’ gimme a minute.” Her words were slurred, like she was tired. She probably was. “’S a lotta noise, and—I don’—don’t like it, make it <i>stop—” </i>she cut herself off with another groan, head dropping forward to rest her forehead on her knees, and Rex’s heart clenched. No matter how much she had grown since he had first met her on Christophsis, she was just a kid; a kid that should never have been on the front lines in the first place. What were the Jedi <i>thinking,</i> the council—or whoever oversaw Jedi-related decisions, Rex didn’t know—sending out a <i>child</i> to the front lines.</p><p>Rex couldn’t do anything about the Jedi’s decision, but now that Commander Tano was here, he decided to do whatever he could to protect her. Both from blaster fire and the consequences of war, even if it was unnecessary.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Even in the village full of people somewhere up ahead, Obi-wan could pick out Ahsoka’s Force signature. Captain Rex’s as well, but it took a little more time. If he focused, he could just barely sense Anakin’s presence at the edges of his mind like a whirlwind mixed with a star in the Force, making his way to join them.<br/>Obi-wan closed his eyes for a moment and focused on his Grandpadawan, balking when felt an acute spike of pain followed by a dull throb radiating from her. He jerked, eyes flying open, and heard the click of Cody’s blaster being primed.<p>“General, are you alright?” Cody asked. A hopeful part of Obi-wan registered his Commander’s wording; he had asked if Obi-wan <i>specifically </i>was alright, not the situation. <i>That’s ridiculous,</i> Obi-wan scolded himself, ignoring that hopeful part of him and smoothed away his Commander’s flare of worry in the Force with a brush of his mind. He waved his hand slightly, indicating for Cody to put the blaster down.</p><p>“My apologies, Cody, there’s no threat,” he explained, turning to look at his Commander. Cody lowered the blaster slightly, looking around a little, then relaxed and dropped the blaster to his side.</p><p>“Well, you jumped at something, sir,” Cody pointed out, and Obi-wan was forced to concede to his Commander’s point. </p><p>“I don’t believe anyone is in imminent danger, Commander, although I felt pain from Ahsoka and would like to get over there as soon as possible,” Obi-wan explained, not knowing how to explain the spike of<i> agony</i> and dull throb he felt to a non-Force-sensitive. Cody seemed to understand anyways, and Obi-wan was grateful.</p><p>“We’d better hurry, then, General,” Cody said decisively and without hesitation, and Obi-wan felt a rush of gratitude and affection towards his Commander. Cody always seemed to know exactly what to say to make Obi-wan feel a little bit better, about<i> any </i>situation. It was a talent, really, and every time he took extra care to make sure Obi-wan was alright after a battle, or eating enough, or that he got to bed when they were on the <i>Negotiator,</i> it made Obi-wan love him a little more.</p><p><i>Love. </i>Obi-wan’s mind stuttered to a halt for a moment at the realization. <i>It made sense,</i> he thought, though it was a little strange to put such a strong word to his feelings.</p><p>Either way, this was not the time for Obi-wan to have a crisis or deal with his thoughts and feelings, and he had a strong feeling that one would lead to another. He gave Cody a smile that he hoped conveyed enough of his thoughts. Cody nodded in acknowledgement, and they turned in unison to make their way to the village.</p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Commander Tano stayed on the steps for a few more moments, evening out her breaths and relaxing the tension in her body. She pushed herself to her feet, swaying slightly and gripping Rex’s pauldron for stability. Her eyes were screwed shut and she pressed the heel of her hand into the centre of her forehead. Rex stood up—slowly, so he didn’t disturb her—and the Commander dropped her hand from his pauldron, opened her eyes and gave him a determined nod that Rex returned in confirmation. The two made their way down the rest of the stairs until they reached the road. Up close, Rex could see that it was paved with large, flat stones rather than being smooth. He looked around, wondering for a moment where all the people he heard were.<p>He didn’t have to wonder long. Commander Tano curled in on his side, pressing her forehead into his probably freezing armour with a groan of pain, and a moment later Rex heard the chattering get louder to the point where he could almost hear individual conversations and speakers. A few buildings down, a doorway opened and a group of young nat-borns poured out, followed by two people who looked to be Rex’s age. Rex’s<i> physical </i>age, that was, not his biological age of twelve or so.</p><p>One of the older nat-borns noticed Rex and Commander Tano’s presence and nudged the other’s shoulder to and pointed to them, leaning into murmur something that Rex had no chance of hearing. </p><p>The next moment, the kids noticed them as well. And they weren’t<i> nearly </i>as subtle. As soon as one kid pointed at them and squealed something in a language Rex didn’t understand, all of them followed suit. They rushed over in a group, and the effect was immediate on the Commander. She sank to her knees with an actual <i>cry</i> of pain, hands still gripping at Rex’s armour to try and keep herself upright. She didn’t even try to muffle or disguise her pain like she had before, in the tundra, which Rex took to be a bad sign. She folded down into a little ball, hands over her montrals, gripping the blanket. </p><p>The kids continued to draw nearer, undeterred by the pain Commander Tano was in. Rex could hear the adult nat-borns yelling at the kids, presumably for them to leave Rex and the Commander alone, but it was in the other language again, so he didn’t know. Either way, he was too focused on the Commander to worry himself with what the adults were yelling. Making a quick decision, Rex stood up from his Commander’s side and quickly took a few steps in front of her, hoping that was enough distance.</p><p><i>“Get back!”</i> He yelled at the kids, waving his hands and gesturing for them to <i>get back</i> in case they didn’t speak Basic. The group slowed down until they stopped around Rex, looking up at him with wonder from where they stood at his waist. Rex hadn’t been that short since he was<i> four.</i></p><p>As they all started bombarding him with questions—in Basic, thankfully—and Rex quickly realized that he had no idea how to deal with young nat-borns. He glanced between them all, almost overwhelmed with their attention and enthusiasm. It was funny, really, a Captain of the GAR, specifically made to be adaptable and keep up with <i>Jedi</i> couldn’t deal with a bunch of nat-born children.</p><p>“Hi, I’m Kiria,” Rex heard a voice from behind, him, and jerked around to see another one of the nat-borns crouched over Ahsoka, who was lying on her side curled up into somehow an even <i>tighter</i> ball. “What’s your name?” the nat-born continued, and Rex could hear his Commander’s whimper of pain from over<i> here.</i></p><p><i>“Hey!”</i> He yelled, trying to get the kid’s attention. <i>What was her name? something like— “Kira!”</i> She turned around, and Rex figured he was close enough. “Get back! All of you—” he took a few steps forward as some of the other kids noticed the Commander behind him and seemed interested. Rex jogged back over to Commander Tano, who—didn’t look responsive. <i>Kriff, he needed to get the nat-borns away, why didn’t they teach the clones how to corral small children on Kamino, that skill really would have come in handy—</i></p><p>“All of you—” Rex tried, almost desperate, “get behind me.” He didn’t know how to talk to kids, should he try to be more friendly or should he leave no room for argument. No one on Kamino was friendly when giving orders or when they wanted something, but Rex was growing increasingly aware that the clones had been an <i>exception.</i> </p><p>Either way, whatever he said and however he said it worked. The girl who had been crouching over the Commander—Kira? —she followed his orders and came to stand behind him. She didn’t look very happy about it, but Rex just wanted them all <i>away </i>from the Commander. </p><p>Rex’s shoulders slumped with his breath of relief. He turned around and saw the kids all looking up at him expectantly and—<i>what was he supposed to do now?</i> Awkwardly, he used his hands to try and shoo the kids away, back to the two older nat-borns who were fast-approaching.</p><p>“Kids,” one of the women began, her face and voice kind but with an edge that said she wasn’t going to ask twice. All the kids that had been swarming around Rex’s legs immediately turned to face her. “Come back here and stop bothering the newcomers.”</p><p>“But they’re <i>new!”</i> the girl who had been by the Commander complained. She opened her mouth to continue, but the other adult—the one who had a black mask covering the bottom half of her face—cut the kid off sternly.</p><p>“You may meet them later, Kiria.” Kiria. Rex was close. “Now, all of you come over here and be respectful.” The kids looked disappointed but walked back to the two women anyways. They continued to talk to the kids bending down and just acting so—<i>naturally.</i> Rex had no idea how to deal with children and resorted to limiting his contact with nat-born kids as much as possible. </p><p>With the children gone and therefore unable to cause the Commander more pain, Rex quickly ran back over to where she way lying on the cold stones, heart beating in his chest as he saw she was still unresponsive. He pressed two fingers to her neck, brushing past her lekku and he could feel how cold they were, even through his blacks. <i>Kriff. </i></p><p>Her pulse was steady, if concerningly slow, and he was pretty sure that was something Togruta did to help themselves stay warm in dire situations. Rex let out a heavy breath he didn’t know he had been holding, and his HUD fogged up a little. He registered quiet footsteps from behind him, and he whirled around, expecting another kid and ready to tell the nat-born to <i>get away from the Commander, </i>but the nat-born behind him wasn’t one of the kids.</p><p>The second woman who spoke, the one who told the kids to get away from Rex and Commander Tano, was standing in front of him. She held her hand up in a placating gesture as she moved to crouch by Rex, who nodded. She sank all the way down to her heels, and from this close, Rex could see that her face wasn’t quite human. As she blinked, Rex saw a layer of film cover her eye before the eyelid, likely a protective layer against the snow and wind.</p><p>“Do you need help?” she asked, voice lowered carefully. Rex nodded. “I apologize about the children; we don’t get many outsiders and I don’t think any of them have seen someone who doesn’t look like us.” She explained, apology evident in her voice and words. Rex looked down at his Commander and<i> yeah, </i>compared to the people he’d seen in this village, her orange skin and montrals were quite out of place.</p><p>“What can I do to help?” she asked.</p><p>“Commander Tano’s montrals need to warm up.” Rex told the woman, who looked thoughtful and nodded.</p><p>“We don’t know anything about treating montrals, but we do know frostbite. If you carry her, I can lead you to one of our revival wards.” <i>Revival wards?</i> That had <i>better </i>be the natives’ equivalent of a medic’s tent. Rex hoped that Commander Tano’s montrals weren’t frostbitten yet, for her sake.</p><p>“Is it crowded there?” Rex asked, remembering the pain his Commander had felt when they had approached the village. The woman shook her head.</p><p>“Not if you need it not to be. I don’t believe Healer Halia has any patients right now, but our friends often hang around to chat.”</p><p>“Thank you, ma’am,” Rex said gratefully. The woman nodded and stood up taking a few steps away to comm the medic. As he watched, the flickering blue image only remained for a few moments, as the woman relayed Rex’s message impossibly fast in what he figured to be the village’s—and maybe planet’s—native language. The woman nodded once, put her comm away and walked over to one of the concentric crossroads to their right, motioning for Rex to follow but didn’t leave without him. </p><p>Rex knelt by Commander Tano and carefully unfolded her from the loosely curled-up position she had passed out in until he could carry her properly. He slid his hands under her knees and upper back, right below her montrals, and nearly tipped backwards when he lifted her with <i>far</i> more ease than he should have been able to, with his armour and exhaustion. </p><p>Brushing his concern for his Commander’s health away, he turned right and followed the woman along the long, slightly inwardly curving road. It seemed that the entire village was outdoors, talking and eating and laughing and singing. As he passed, weaving through the crowd with his Commander in his arms, they drew a lot of strange looks. Nothing hostile, just curious. A lot of people waved, and some who weren’t wearing masks gave him a smile as well. </p><p>Yeah, he and his very much <i>orange</i> sixteen-year-old Commander were quite out of place. His armour starkly contrasted the long, white, grey and brown coats the natives wore, with intricate designs on the hem and fur around the hood and sleeves. </p><p>Quite used to strange looks from the locals of whatever planet the 501st was deployed on, though not as friendly, Rex ignored them for the task and followed the woman’s lead when she turned right to a road that led them to a smaller circular road, then took another few turns when they reached <i>that </i>road. When they stopped, there were two nearly identical buildings on either side and a few suspended covered bridges connecting them further along. The double wide doorsslid open as the woman stepped closer, and Rex felt a rush of warmth from the three large stone fireplaces in all the corners of the room. Except the one to the left, which had a large desk that looked more like a counter.</p><p>“Halia,” the woman said, and another woman popped up from behind the desk. She said something quickly in their native language and the first woman responded before gesturing to Rex, and probably Ahsoka in his arms as well. </p><p>“She needs silence, yes?” The healer—Halia—suddenly addressed Rex in Basic, who nodded. “Sephi told me. Come, I have a room for you.” Rex assumed that <i>Sephi</i> was the woman he was following, and he turned to see the doctor place a card on a scanner by one of the walls, which promptly slid open to reveal a hallway. The technology itself wasn’t new or innovative by any means, but the seam lines were so clean that Rex could have spend days in this room and have no idea there was a door. He glanced to the other walls as he followed the women towards the new opening and saw two identical datapads on either.</p><p>Once they neared, the healer pushed a few buttons on a pad just on the other side of the door, and once she finished the sequence, steps shot out of the wall and latched onto the other. He jerked a little at the first <i>shunk, </i>but the two women didn’t even react, just waited a few moments for eight stairs to appear before starting up them in unison. Rex, once again, followed, a few steps behind them.</p><p>The ward was bigger than he first thought, apparently. The stairs turned twice before leading them to a short hallway with a few doors on either side. Healer Halia turned to the first door, opening it with the same card and showing them inside. The room was small; a bed with more than a few blankets was against the wall in one corner with another roaring fireplace opposite it. There was a large chair beside the bed and a door that he presumed led to a refresher.</p><p>“You can put her in the bed,” The first woman—Sephi—prompted him, stripping back the blankets. Rex laid the Commander in the bed, not bothering to take her boots off, and the healer untied the blanket Rex had put around her montrals and replaced it with furs. </p><p>Healer Halia pulled a datapad out of one of the pockets of her deep brown and black mottled fur jacket, tapped it a couple times and a large holoscreen extended from their side of the bed and curved over to connect to the other, covering the Commander. Different readouts popped up on the holoscreen as Healer Halia swiped up on her datapad, and Rex guessed she was choosing and sending specific information reports, but everything was in an alphabet he didn’t recognize. </p><p>The healer seemed to realize that Rex couldn’t read the native language, so she pressed another button on her datapad and all the text changed to Aurebesh. He leaned forward to read the readouts; they were monitoring… <i>everything,</i> it seemed. Commander Tano’s brain activity, internal temperature, heartbeat—which was still far too slow—and so much more.<i> Everything that would have been affected by the cold, </i>Rex guessed.</p><p>Once Healer Halia deemed Commander Tano to be situated, she put the datapad next to her on the bedside table and turned to Rex, looking him up and down and pursing her lips.</p><p>“You just need to warm up,” she decided, almost murmuring, and turned back to pull the covers up to Commander Tano’s shoulders. “You can stay here by the fire if you want, or I can put you in the room across the hall.”</p><p><i>Well, that really wasn’t a choice, was it?</i> “I’ll stay here, s—ma’am,” Rex said definitively, holding his bucket a little bit higher and subconsciously standing at parade rest. The woman didn’t look surprised, just nodded and turned towards the door.</p><p>“If you need anything, then push this button—” she pointed at the middle of three buttons on a panel by the door, “—and I’ll be up as soon as possible.” Rex nodded, grateful.</p><p>“Understood, ma’am.” The healer smiled at him—Sephi may have as well but Rex couldn’t see under her mask—and the two left, the door sliding shut behind them.</p><p>As soon as they were out of sight, Rex felt his body droop with exhaustion. He pulled off his helmet and ran a hand over his buzzed hair, sighing. He put his bucket at the foot of the bed and turned to look at the Commander, and—<i>kriff.</i> Now that he could see them in proper light, the white bands of her montrals were almost <i>blue,</i> and it wasn't the glow from the holoscreens. Rex knew that there was really no way he could have seen, with the subpar light of the tundra and blanket, but he still kicked himself for not noticing.</p><p><i>There was nothing he can do now, except make sure the fire stays going and the furs stay around her montrals,</i> Rex reminded himself. He methodically removed his pauldron, then bracers, rerebraces and shoulder bells in order, stacking them neatly. He unclipped the sides of his chestplate before ducking down to slide it over his head, stiff shoulders aching. Still holding it, Rex took a deep breath, allowing his lungs to expand in ways they couldn’t on the tundra with his chestplate.</p><p>He decided to leave his lower body armour on, so only took him a moment to stack his armour by the foot of Commander Tano’s bed. He sat down heavily in front of the fireplace, letting himself just enjoy the warmth and rolling out his stiff joints.</p><p>The next thing he needed to do, Rex knew, was find a radio or some other way to send a long-distance transmission. But that could wait. Even though there was no part of the regs that said the clones were responsible for looking out for their Jedi—looking out for, not protecting, which were two very different things—Rex didn’t want to leave his Commander’s side.</p><p>Sighing, Rex devised a plan of action: first, make sure the Commander was going to be alright, and work on finding a long-distance comm when the whites of her montrals were <i>white </i>again.</p><p>There was nothing in his plan that said he would <i>sit by the fire and soak up the warmth like he’d spent almost half a standard rotation trekking through the freezing tundra, </i>but if serving with General Skywalker had taught him anything, it was when to improvise on a plan. </p><p>Rex decided now was a good enough time.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Anakin’s extreme Force sensitivity was both a blessing and curse, he thought. He had an acute connection with Ahsoka—being his Padawan and all—and even the distance and snowy tundra couldn’t break it, just maybe…dull it, a little. In reality, it was probably Anakin’s reluctance to stay still and meditate long enough to pinpoint her or Obi-wan’s locations. For now, those connections were sitting comfortably at the back of his mind.<p>Until they <i>weren’t</i> at the back of his mind, when Ahsoka’s Force signature started <i>screaming.</i> Anakin almost jumped, mistaking the feeling in his head for an external sound, then took a deep breath and tried to focus his mind on his Padawan. The frosty air stung his nose and throat as he breathed in, so he pressed a sleeve to his face as a makeshift filter and re-focused on the task at hand.</p><p>Ahsoka’s Force signature wasn’t so much screaming, anymore, it had dulled to more of an elongated groan. Anakin winced, feeling his Padawan’s pain almost as his own. He saw brief flashes of the village he hoped he was heading to, felt the people’s bright and lively Force signatures. Squeezing his eyes shut, he got a brief image of a staircase, pain, then a road and a swarm of children running towards him—her—them—<i>oh for Force’s sake. </i>Ahsoka and Rex.</p><p>He got a brief impression of Rex’s protectiveness, then <i>pain, so much pain, a little girl standing over him—Ahsoka— friendly but so much pain, head splitting open—</i>and then nothing.</p><p>Anakin’s eyes jerked open in panic, fearing for his Padawan’s life for a moment before reaching into his head and giving their connection a little<i> tug.</i> He deflated a little, letting out a breath of relief when those threads were still there, just quiet on Ahsoka’s end. Faint, not gone.</p><p>“Rex?” he asked, holding up his left arm and spoke into the comm, but was met with silence. Not static, he noted. Anakin looked down at his comm, and the little thing didn’t <i>look </i>damaged. Pressing another button but expecting the same result, he tried again.</p><p>“Obi-wan?”</p><p>Nothing. The kriffing wiring must have frozen over. Annoyed, Anakin tapped it with his mechanical hand, which did nothing but put the little indicator light out. <i>Kriff. </i></p><p>With no way to contact anyone and no time to fix his comm, Anakin reignited his lightsaber and continued pushing through the snow with newfound energy, even more determined to get to his Padawan. He wasn’t stupid enough to run; Anakin could feel that the village was too far away to get to in one sprint and the last thing he needed was to fall asleep from exhaustion in the snow. </p><p><i>Ahsoka is with Rex,</i> Anakin reminded himself when he prodded their bond and didn’t get a poke back.</p><p><i>Rex, who as great as he is, doesn’t know how to deal with possible Force-related injuries and may have as little information as I do on Togrutan biology, </i>another part of him whispered, which Anakin quickly shut down. He could sense nothing but outright<i> joy </i>from the natives despite living on an ice ball, so they should at least be able to get warm and rest a little.</p><p><i>But what was the cause of Ahsoka’s pain?</i> He guessed it was something to do with her montrals, but Anakin admittedly didn’t know too much about the specifics. He only remembered that montrals and lekku were sensitive and more easily damaged than the rest of the body from the holobook on Togruta he’d found in the archives a few rotations after Christophsis and Teth. <i>Could the damage be permanent?</i> Anakin wondered, racking his brain for anything else helpful from the book. A pang of guilt echoed through him; Ahsoka was his <i>Padawan,</i> he should have known more about her biology and what could affect her in different ways than a human.</p><p><i>Overthinking won’t help Ahsoka, </i>Anakin reminded himself, doing his best to let his worry go into the Force like Obi-wan taught him and focused on getting to his Padawan instead of worrying from afar. He blinked snowflakes out of his eyes and did his best to hike his collars up as high as they would go. Usually, Anakin found the standard Jedi tunics and robes to be excessive and downright <i>sweltering </i>at times, but he was particularly grateful for the extra layers now. </p><p>There was another tinkling of bells from above him that continued into the distance with the wind, and Anakin paused momentarily to glance up to the treetops, looking for the bells that were invisible from the ground. Another gust swept through the clearing, rustling the bells again as it went, and Anakin decided that this was<i> not </i>the time to sight-see.</p><p>He picked up his pace again, lightsaber held in front of him this time. He wove through the forest with the grace of a trained Jedi, extending his senses through the Force to feel for the trees he would only see until too late. He couldn’t <i>run,</i> per se, in the name of conserving and optimizing his energy, but he moved as fast as he could towards the settlement, determined to reach his Padawan.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so sorry this chapter is out late, I explained myself on my tumblr:/ (*cough* go follow me @chasethefearaway). Thank you all for reading, and kudos and comments mean the world to me! I'll try to get the next chapter out on sunday and keep to an actual schedule lmao.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Arrival</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Finally, everyone arrives at the village, though most of them have yet to find each other</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As if this planet couldn’t get <i>worse,</i> Anakin’s mechanical hand started spazzing. Most prosthetic limbs came with standard cold-resistance and insulation, but in Anakin’s endless tinkering, he hadn’t thought to further <i>ice-</i>proof it. Before the war, he wouldn’t have any reason to be on an ice planet for an extended period, and the thought had simply slipped his mind when the war started. </p><p>Really, it wasn’t <i>his</i> fault, but that didn’t stop him muffling a frustrated scream with his teeth when he had to detangle his mechanical fingers from his hair. Now, he had one flesh hand that was stiff with cold and one hand that was about to completely shut down and had to be pried open. Neither of which were suitable for holding a lightsaber.</p><p>Deciding to spare his flesh hand from the biting cold that wasn’t even from the wind now, just the air itself, he balanced his lightsaber in his right hand and folded the unresponsive fingers over it. He shook his mechanical arm around as much as he could from the shoulder in a way that would make Obi-wan sigh in disappointment, or possibly yell at him to stop even though he wasn’t his master anymore. After adjusting the position of his fingers and tightening them a little, Anakin tucked his flesh hand into one of the folds of his robes to warm it up and held out his designated lightsaber-holder in front of him.</p><p>Sighing and realizing the almost ridiculousness of his situation, he continued through the forest. The village was far closer now, Anakin could almost see its lights with his own two eyes. The Force signatures of the village seemed to envelop him in a quite comfortable feeling, which he welcomed after being out in the tundra with no one around. There was rarely down time on Coruscant and never to this degree, always some life within Anakin’s senses. </p><p><i>Was it a bad thing, </i>Anakin found himself wondering, <i>that he was so used to Force signatures from other beings that being without them was so… </i>he couldn’t think of a word to describe the sheer loneliness he felt out on the tundra, barely able to sense Ahsoka and Obi-wan. As the war went on, Anakin had become used to the steady Force signatures of the thousands of clones under his command and the reassuring presence of Captain Rex at his side. Ahsoka’s presence was less of a <i>reassuring </i>one, in the sense that Anakin felt that he could rely on Rex for battle strategies, but calming in a unique way, like having a younger sister to both take care of, teach, and get into trouble with. Not the traditional way to train a Padawan, apparently, but nothing about having the <i>peacekeeping Jedi</i> as Generals was <i>traditional.</i></p><p>Anakin barely noticed the trees passing as he remained deep in thought, until his foot caught on what was probably an exposed tree root and sent him sprawling in the snow. <i>Then,</i> to kick him while he was down, another drift of snow that had been resting on one of the branches above him fell <i>right </i>onto his head.</p><p>If there was anyone around to hear his yelp of surprise, Anakin would deny it until the day he became one with the Force. The Chosen One did <i>not</i> yelp at a little bit of snow down his neck. </p><p>Anakin Skywalker, however, born and raised on Tatooine and then Coruscant, apparently did.</p><p>Most of the snow slid off when he stood up to brush his front off, but some of it slid down his <i>neck</i> and <i>into his robes </i>and he hissed, freezing in place. A lot of it slid down his neck. He hunched his shoulders and made a<i> very </i>weird noise with his mouth, trying to get the freezing cold sensation to <i>stop melting</i>into his back and robes. He arched his back awkwardly, trying to minimize skin contact with the chunks of snow. The little bit of warmth he had with his robes was<i> rapidly</i> fading.</p><p><i>There was nothing he could do to shake the snow out,</i> Anakin realized dejectedly. His tunics were cinched at the waist so it couldn’t just<i> fall out </i>like he wanted it to, nor did he feel like weaving his hand through the folds and layers to try and remove the snow. Which wouldn’t do much anyways, as it was quickly turning to water.</p><p>Anakin <i>also</i> decided against pulling his layers of robes off until he reached the ice, but he heard that frostbite was a slow death, and he was already half-frozen.</p><p>So. Suffering it was. At least with no people around, no one would hear the slurred stream of colourful language and complaints flowing out of his frozen mouth.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>When Rex woke up—<i>kriff, when had he fallen asleep?</i>—nothing had changed. The top half of his armour was still stacked next to him, the bottom half he was still wearing, he was leaning against the footboard of Commander Tano’s bed. In this room was the quietest it had been since he and the Commander got to the village, and he was grateful. For her sake.<p>The fire crackled in the fireplace, and either someone had been in to add fuel or he hadn’t been asleep long. Spaced out, Rex stared into the flames for a moment before making himself get up off the surprisingly comfortable rug. He turned and looked at the bed, and—no change. Commander Tano was still fast asleep. </p><p>Rex walked over to readjust the furs around her montrals, making sure they were completely covered and insulated. He took a step back and quickly checked the readouts, and her vitals were well on their way back to normal. Her heartbeat was still a little too slow and her internal temperature was still to cold, but it was warmer than it had been when he first put her in the bed. Rex checked the whites of her montrals to see if there was any progress, and—they weren’t back to their original colour, but the purple tinge he guessed was from the cold (hopefully not frostbite) had receded and faded to about half what it was when they first got to the village.</p><p>With the warmth and furs clearly working fine, Rex decided it was time to find a long-distance radio. He quickly slid his chestplate over his head and clipped it in place, attached his various arm pieces and added his pauldron and ammo pack on top.</p><p>He hoisted his bucket up under his arm, pressed a button and the door slid open with a <i>hiss,</i> then promptly closed behind him when he stepped through. He looked both ways, trying to remember the way the healer had led him. <i>Would the staircase even be there? </i>Rex wondered as he turned and walked to the shorter end of the hall. As he reached the end, he heard a <i>shunk</i> of the stairs sliding into place, then the entire wall slid smoothly open and he stepped through.</p><p>The hallway was dimly lit, without the night vision in his helmet. There were no overhead lights like he was used to aboard the resolute; the only source of light in the hallway was from more of the small strings of lights wrapped around more garlands of plants, which was becoming a common sight in the village. He followed the lights around two turns until they reached another wall, which promptly slid open to reveal the communal area of the medic ward.</p><p>Healer Halia was sitting behind the desk in the corner, typing something into the five holoscreens floating in front of her. Rex cleared his throat awkwardly, and her head abruptly snapped up.</p><p>“Ah,” she smiled, pushing herself back from the desk and standing up. “How do you feel?”</p><p>“Warmer,” Rex answered truthfully, hoping his gratefulness showed in his voice. The healer smiled more at that.</p><p>“The cold here is... hard, to people with no good clothes and tools,” she said, and Rex had to agree. “I see many  here with injuries from cold. Your friend is healing, she will wake up soon.” He gave Healer Halia a small smile at that, and a quick incline of his head. Her wording was just a little <i>off</i>, like Basic was her second language and she only had a textbook understanding of the language. Which wasn’t surprising; many cultures learned their native language first and Basic second.</p><p>“Is there a long-distance radio anywhere in this village?” Rex asked, getting on task. Healer Halia cocked her head, and Rex was about to repeat his words when she nodded slowly.</p><p>“I believe so, yes. Past the tree, in the centre with the lights, you know the one?” Rex nodded. The tree she was talking about was rather hard to miss. “From here, turn—” she abruptly cut off, gestured with her hands instead of telling him, mapping out the route Rex would take. “L—left?” She turned to face the door to the street, still looking at Rex, and pointed to the left. “That was is left, yes?” Rex nodded again.</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.” The healer gave him a quick smile.</p><p>“Thank you. Turn left and go down the road until you reach the end and go left and—right. Go on the main road until you reach village center. There will be a big… <i>house, </i>with “communication” written in front. I think there is a radio for you there,” she explained. Her speech halted a bit on house, like she couldn’t remember the word she was thinking of and <i>house </i>was the closest word she could remember. Nevertheless, Rex understood her meaning. He gave her another nod, readjusting his helmet under his arm.</p><p>“Thank you, ma’am.” She smiled in return.</p><p>“It was no, problem…?” The healer trailed off, prompting Rex to give his name.</p><p>“C—Rex, ma’am.” He debated giving his designation or rank but decided against it. There was no one here besides Cody, Commander Tano or the Generals who knew his rank, and Rex had to admit he liked that a little. Not<i> Captain Rex of the 501st Legion </i>or<i> CT-7657,</i> just <i>Rex, </i>at least to the villagers.</p><p>He found himself thinking back to Cut Lawquane and his family on Saleucami. Not a soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic, just a simple farmer with a wife and kids but willing to do anything for them.</p><p>“It was no problem, Rex.” He smiled a little, then turned to walk out the door.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>The village was truly a remarkable sight from the surface, Obi-wan thought, and the feeling of wonder that was very nearly<i> radiating</i> off his Commander was bright enough to rival the entire population below. At least to him.<p>Part of Obi-wan wanted to find<i> some way </i>to make Cody feel like that every day this Force-forsaken war raged on. He deserved that, at the <i>very </i>least, a break from the fighting and happiness that Obi-wan hoped he was a part of.</p><p>Obi-wan closed his eyes and schooled his thoughts back into order, stretching out his senses in the Force. He searched for the familiar Force signatures of Ahsoka and Anakin across the tundra and in the village; his former Padawan seemed brighter and closer than he was the last time Obi-wan took the time to reach out, and it only took Obi-wan a minute to pick out Ahsoka’s general direction among the sentients below. She didn’t seem to be in anymore pain, which was a relief.</p><p>“Ahsoka’s down there, and I would imagine Captain Rex is too,” Obi-wan told Cody, opening his eyes. “Anakin should be here soon, but he hasn’t arrived yet.” Cody’s helmet tilted towards Obi-wan, and then nodded.</p><p>“Looks like the entrance is over there,” Cody pointed out, jerking his helmet and gesturing with his blaster to their right. Obi-wan looked down into the settlement again, and there was indeed a staircase leading to a small, decorated tunnel that emerged into the snow.</p><p>“It appears you’re right, Commander.” Obi-wan gave Cody a smile, which threatened to fall off his face when he felt his Commander’s shields slide into place subtly. He turned to the entrance, letting his confused (and<i> hurt,</i> more than something like that would justify) feelings show on his face.</p><p>Obi-wan sensed no animosity from the village, so he didn’t bother igniting his lightsaber as he and Cody entered the tunnel. He didn’t even need it for light; the flickering and <i>warm</i> light from the candles coupled with the village lights shining down the end of the short tunnel was bright enough.</p><p>Still, Obi-wan only realized the <i>slightly</i> protective stance he took in front of his Commander when they emerged out of the tunnel and Obi-wan felt Cody shift to the side to look around his body.</p><p>“It’s quite beautiful, isn’t it?” Obi-wan asked, undecided as to whether it was rhetorical or directed towards the man behind him.</p><p>“It is, sir. Quite cozy.” Despite the simplicity of his Commander’s answer, Obi-wan could feel his sincerity through the Force, coupled with a touch of longing that matched Obi-wan’s own.</p><p>They reached the bottom of the staircase and continued along the road, both admiring the lights and garlands it seemed the whole village was wrapped with. At the next crossroads, Obi-wan stopped and closed his eyes, homing in on Ahsoka’s Force signature.</p><p>“This way,” Obi-wan instructed, turning towards the left road. The main village paths seemed to be arranged in concentric circles, with buildings in between them.<br/>
Now that he was closer, Obi-wan could read his Grandpadawan’s feelings more accurately. It didn’t seem like she was in any more pain, but her Force-signature was… too <i>quiet.</i> She had grown a lot from the headstrong and stubborn Padawan she was on Christophsis, but she was rarely this quiet or inactive. It unnerved Obi-wan, and strengthened his resolve to reach her.</p><p>“Do you know exactly where she is, sir?” Cody asked from behind him. Obi-wan slowed his stride a little to fall into step with his Commander, turning his head to face the clone.</p><p>“Unfortunately, I cannot feel her exact location, Cody. I believe the cold may be… messing with me.” It was a rather vague explanation, but the Commander nodded anyways. “But I can assure you that we’re heading in the right direction.”</p><p>The village roads were somewhat of a maze, and even Obi-wan couldn’t navigate them perfectly. He may have led himself and Cody around in a small circle or otherwise while trying to find the fastest was to <i>wherever</i> Ahsoka was, and he couldn’t ask the locals for directions without a location in mind.</p><p>It turned out he didn’t need to ask anyone for directions.</p><p>“Are you with the other two who arrived earlier?” Obi-wan turned around and one of the locals was standing there, a mask obscuring half her face. She had a deep brown jacket that went to her knees with whitish fur around the hems and boots that reached the bottom edge of her jacket. </p><p>“The other two?” Obi-wan asked, hoping she was talking about Ahsoka and Captain Rex.</p><p>“Yes. There was a young Togruta and a man in armour like yours,” she explained, gesturing at Cody, and Obi-wan could feel and underlying current of curiosity wavering around her. <i>The village must not get many visitors,</i> he thought.</p><p>“Yes, ma’am. That’s them. Do you know where they are?” Cody stepped forward, very nearly taking the words out of Obi-wan’s mouth.</p><p>“I do, follow me.” She instructed, turning back the way they came.</p><p>“It appears I was a little lost, Commander,” Obi-wan joked, and felt a spike of wry amusement emanating from Cody that made him feel unnaturally <i>warm.</i></p><p>“It appears you were, sir.” Cody poked back, and Obi-wan smiled.</p><p>The woman turned onto another street Obi-wan and Cody had just walked by and continued until the three of them were standing in front of a pair of double doors. She turned to face them as the doors slid open with a <i>hiss</i> behind her, and Obi-wan felt her worry through the Force, his own rising to match. </p><p>“I must warn you; the girl did not look well when I saw her last. The soldier was carrying her.” She gestured with her head towards the doorway, and Obi-wan and Cody exchanged a concerned glance before following through. Captain Rex had to <i>carry</i> Ahsoka? Obi-wan knew that Ahsoka disliked being carried (not to be confused with riding on someone’s back—usually Anakin’s—and Obi-wan once saw her perched on Rex’s shoulders a few months after the battle of Christophsis. <i>I can see better,</i> she had told Obi-wan), and this latest information added to his worry about his Grandpadawan.</p><p>As they stepped inside and the doors closed behind them, the environment seemed to change completely. Outside, the village had been festive and lively, but in here it was just <i>cozy.</i> Obi-wan quickly scanned the three fireplaces and few large chairs on rugs in the middle of the room, for a moment wanting nothing more than to collapse into one of them. He felt Cody relax minutely by his side, hands coming up to remove his helmet. He shook out his head a little—<i>like he usually did after wearing his helmet for an extended period, </i>he remembered—then looked around, and Obi-wan guessed he and his Commander had similar thoughts. <i>And Cody had to walk through the snow in his armour as well,</i> a small voice in the back of Obi-wan’s head reminded him. If anyone deserved to collapse in one of those chairs, it would be Cody. </p><p>Obi-wan quietly filed away a mental note to make sure his Commander got some rest soon, no matter what he said about being trained for this.</p><p>A conversation in the native language behind him alerted Obi-wan to another sentient in the room.<i> He must have mistaken the person with another fire,</i> Obi-wan realized, noticing that the Force signature of the new person—a woman, he could tell now—was remarkably like the warm feeling he got from the fireplaces.</p><p>“You are looking for your friends?” the new woman turned to Obi-wan and Cody, who nodded. “The girl is upstairs, and Rex left to the radio.” The two men turned to each other, coming to a silent agreement. Obi-wan didn’t <i>want </i>to leave his Commander’s side, especially after being in the snow with him for the last half a rotation, but he knew to prioritize the mission—or really, whatever needed to be done, they were well past the <i>mission</i> at this point—over his personal feelings. No matter how strong they were.</p><p>Obi-wan could feel the weight of his Commander’s gaze slide off him as took a step towards the woman. “Ma’am, which way is the radio?” The shorter woman sitting at the desk opened her mouth, then closed it with a slightly<i> frustrated</i> trill. </p><p>“I am not good with—ways. Directions. Sephi will tell you.” She gestured with her hand towards the woman—Sephi—who led them to the building, who nodded. “I will take you to the girl,” the woman told Obi-wan, getting up from behind her desk. He had one final exchange with his Commander, who seemed as reluctant to leave Obi-wan as Obi-wan was to leave him (or maybe Obi-wan was projecting his own emotions onto Cody. He hoped not). Obi-wan gave him a small smile and a nod, and Cody nodded before turning to Sephi.</p><p>“Thank you,” Obi-wan said gratefully, and the woman smiled. “If I may ask, what’s your name?”</p><p>“I am Healer Halia,” she responded, typing something into a pad and pressing a card to the adjacent scanner. “What are you called?”</p><p>“I am Obi-wan Kenobi.” Something about Healer Halia made him feel<i> relaxed, </i>almost, which he figured was a useful quality—or skill, maybe? Obi-wan didn’t know much about these people—for a healer.</p><p>“It is good to meet you, Obi-wan Kenobi.” The wall slid open to reveal a staircase forming in front of his eyes, leading upwards. As the steady hum of his Commander’s Force signature began getting further away, Obi-wan followed Healer Halia up the stairs towards his Grandpadawan.</p><p>I hope she’s alright.<i></i></p><p>
  <i></i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Cody didn’t want to leave his General, but he <i>really</i> wanted to check on Rex. No matter how many battles his<i> vod’ika</i> fought, to Cody, he would always be the little blonde cadet trying to prove himself on Kamino. Intellectually, Cody knew that Rex was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, but another stubborn part of him figured that he had gotten sidetracked by something planetside. Unless he was being shot at or planning a campaign to be shot at, the Captain had a rather short attention span that he did his best to keep under control.<p>General Kenobi gave him a small smile and inclined his head, almost sensing Cody’s indecision. <i>Probably </i>sensing Cody’s indecision. At his General’s reassurance, Cody turned to the woman—Sephi—who gave him a little incline of her head in greeting.</p><p>“I think the radio Halia sent your friend to is in village square,” she began, voice a little muffled from her mask, and Halia must have been the second woman. “Turn left from the doors, here, and walk to the end of the street, turn right, and turn left and walk to the tree. There is a building with “communications” written in front, and the radio is there,” she instructed him, gesturing with her hands to make sure Cody knew exactly where to go.</p><p>“Thank you, ma’am.” Sephi nodded and walked over to the desk Healer Halia was occupying a few moments earlier. With one last glance at Ob—<i>General Kenobi</i> over his shoulder, Cody turned and walked back out into the cold.</p><p>The village was a lot prettier without his helmet, Cody realized. The HUD tended to wash out colours and otherwise change the vision to be robotically perfect for scanning terrain or participating in a firefight, things that weren’t needed here. Knowing where he was going and with the temperature in the village noticeably warmer than in the forest, Cody took the rare time to admire the scenery. Everywhere he looked, there were strings of beads and small lights and foliage, looped around balconies and across walls and wrapped around lamp posts.</p><p>All of this, however, paled in comparison to the tree in the centre of the village. As he turned right, then left, as the healer instructed, there was a straight path to said tree and it was impossible to ignore. More details kept appearing, like the varied sizes of the lights, or the small decorations hung across the branches.</p><p><i>Or,</i> Cody thought, unable to fight the grin forming on his face, <i>his vod’ika, who was standing by the base of the tree, surrounded by tiny nat-borns.</i> Cody laughed to himself, his theory proven correct.<i> Kriff, even from here he looks uncomfortable.</i></p><p><i>The radio could wait a bit, </i>Cody reasoned, making his way over to his brother. Not too close, though, he wanted to watch this for a little longer.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>The cold in the village wasn’t <i>nearly </i>as biting and unbearable as it had been out in the open tundra or even in the forest, and Rex was pretty sure it wasn’t just because of the fact the crater was protecting the settlement from the winds. He wasn’t a Jedi, nor was he Force sensitive, but Rex could <i>swear </i>that the people talking and laughing in the village and even the decorations gave off a warm feeling. It was ironic, really; an actual <i>ice ball</i> of a planet making Rex feel warmer than most other planets he had been to.<p>As he walked down the road that Healer Halia had directed him to, people turned to look at him as he passed—which he was entirely used to, as a clone trooper in full armour—but unlike most planets, there was no wariness in their gaze, no hostility. In fact, most of the natives who’s faces he could see gave him a smile, and nearly everyone waved. It was rather unusual, but a welcome change. Sadly, Rex had a feeling that the warm welcome was rather unique to this planet.</p><p>He reached the end of the road and turned left, following Healer Halia’s directions. He reached the main road quickly and turned right and <i>oh, there was the tree.</i> He walked to the centre of the village, which was far livelier than the rest of the village, if only by a little. He pushed through a few crowds, looking around for the <i>communications</i> sign Healer Halia mentioned, belatedly hoping that it was written in Basic.</p><p>In his quick search, Rex found himself gravitating towards the tree, which was <i>much </i>bigger than it seemed from the top of the crater. It was up on a little podium that came up to about his waist and was decorated with more of the lights and foliage decorating the sides, though it had long, fancy bows placed every few feet as well. Now that he was standing in front of it, Rex could see that the branches didn’t go all the way to the bottom, but rather stopped at about his chest level with the combined height of the stand.</p><p><i>It was even prettier up close as well, </i>Rex thought absently. He stood by the edge of the branches and looked up, trying and failing to focus on one thing. There were bright, warm white lights all around the tree, with some type of four-pronged decoration sticking out at the top. Dotted all the way up the tree were small decorations of every size, shape, colour and design, but even with everything packed onto the tree, there were even more decorations that Rex didn’t even have the words to describe. <i>How </i>the villagers managed to get them <i>all the way up to the top</i> was beyond Rex, but for once he was content to just admire the decorations and not think through the practicality of a giant, well-decorated and excessively lit tree like the trainers had taught him to.</p><p>Well, they hadn’t trained him to use his skills of leading a legion and planning a campaign to figure out the logistics of the giant tree. Maybe the planet was doing things to him. Maybe it was the atmosphere that made Rex want to stay here for a long time, despite the snow.</p><p>One thing Rex had never liked about large crowds was how easy it would be for someone to sneak up on him, or blend in and hide. <i>If someone drew their blaster on you right now, you would probably be dead and no one would know who,</i> an incessantly wary little part of his brain whispered.</p><p>He felt a tap on his pauldron and resisted the urge to jump and draw his blaster. <i>If someone wanted to kill you, you would be dead already, </i>he reminded himself. Slightly wary, Rex turned around and was immediately greeted by the <i>slightly</i> unwelcome sight of the same group of kids he had run into earlier gathered around him. He did his best to keep the uncomfortable look he was feeling off his face as he looked down at the kid in front—who barely came up to his <i>thighs,</i> the kid was <i>tiny—</i>who still had an arm outstretched towards his shoulder. Rex didn’t know if he should say something, how should he greet the kids? He’d only had to interact with nat-born kids <i>once </i>in the past, and Cody <i>still</i> wouldn’t let him forget it.</p><p>Before he could come to a decision, the boy in front made it for him.</p><p>“Who’re you?” he asked bluntly, curiosity in his face. Rex barely hesitated before answering.</p><p>“Rex.” The group nodded at that, and another kid—it was the girl from earlier, Kiria—leaned forward.</p><p>“Where’re you from? You’re not dressed to be out in the snow.” Rex didn’t feel like explaining his kit’s enviro regulator to the nat-born kids—he couldn’t even tell how old they were, his experience with aging on Kamino was quite different from everywhere else.</p><p>And where was he even <i>from?</i> Kamino wasn’t his<i> home,</i> he only had a sense of loyalty to the hundreds of thousands of brothers still in the facilities. But where else could he call home? Coruscant was the capital of the Republic, but Rex had only been there a few times, so <i>not a home. </i>The obvious answer was with General Skywalker, Commander Tano and his brothers aboard the <i>Resolute,</i> but that wasn’t a planet and Rex couldn't say he lived on a Star Destroyer. </p><p>
  <i>Where, then?</i>
</p><p>“I’m from Kamino,” he eventually decided. The kids didn’t need to know about the small crisis he’d just had.</p><p>“Where’s that?” The kid in front of him spoke up again, and Rex had to crane his neck to look down at him.</p><p>“At the edge of the Outer Rim, in the Rishi maze”</p><p>“We haven’t learned about that yet.” The boy in front frowned, thinking hard, and then shrugged. He tapped Rex’s chestplate, tilting his head with interest at the <i>tok tok tok</i> noise it made. “What’s this?”</p><p>“That’s my armour.” At the blank stares of the kids, Rex elaborated. “It protects me from blasters, rocks, and most other projectiles.” Which was a <i>gross</i> oversimplification; his kit had may other uses, but he figured the group wouldn’t be interested in the finer details of Phase II armour.</p><p>“Why do you need protection from blasters and rocks?”</p><p><i>Kriff.</i> Rex hesitated. <i>Did the kids somehow not know about the galaxy-wide war going on?</i> He had been to planets that refused to help the Republic and stay isolated or neutral, but not one where knowledge of the war seemed to be <i>optional. </i></p><p><i>The whole planet couldn’t </i>not know <i>about the war,</i> Rex reasoned. The adults probably kept that knowledge from the younger kids, like the ones that were pressing closer and staring up Rex’s chestplate, wide-eyed and attentive. He really didn’t want to be the one to explain what was going on in the galaxy, or even the concept of war to them, but the kids didn’t seem like they would leave him alone until he gave them an answer.</p><p>“In…case… I get trapped… in a landslide?” <i>Kriff. </i>Rex was <i>awful</i> at lying, the only person he knew who was <i>worse</i> than him was Fives. He <i>dearly</i> hoped that the kids would take that as an answer, Rex didn’t want to be pressured into elaborating, <i>please ask something else—</i></p><p>The kid in front shrugged and leaned back a bit, and Rex was grateful that his armour could hide the breath of relief he took.</p><p>“It looks cool,” he decided. “I like the blue.”</p><p>“What’s this?” A kid in the back pushed his way to the front and tapped the Jaig Eyes Rex had painstakingly pained on his helmet after earning them in one of the campaigns following the first battle of Geonosis.</p><p>“Those?” Rex tapped the markings again for clarification, and the kid nodded. “Those are called Jaig Eyes.” He cut himself off before he could say <i>I earned them,</i> which could open more questions about <i>how.</i></p><p>“I like them. They’re pretty.” The kid nodded solemnly and stepped back, and Rex found himself thinking <i>Fives would love this.</i></p><p>“Who was the lady you were with?” another kid changed the topic excitedly, jumping forward.</p><p>“My com—” he cut himself off, remembering that he wasn’t talking about the war right now and therefore would not reveal Commander Tano as, well, his Commander. “Friend. She’s my friend.” It felt <i>weird</i> to say it like that; Commander Tano was his commanding officer but <i>yeah,</i> Rex would consider her a friend, after serving by her side for nearly two years. If he was honest with himself? <i>Friend </i>didn’t cover it, at this point she was basically one of the <i>vode.</i></p><p>“Is she okay?” The girl—<i>Kiria,</i> Rex needed to remember that— asked, looking slightly guilty.</p><p>“She will be, yeah,” Rex said with a small reassuring smile.</p><p>“Is she a Twi’lek?” Rex couldn’t even tell which kid asked him that question. Laughing a little to himself—these kids almost reminded himself of the younger cadets back on Kamino, still so eager and curious—he shook his head.</p><p>“No, she’s a Togruta,” Rex corrected the misconception.</p><p>“But she has the head-tails! The lek—the lekki?”</p><p>“Lekku, kid,” Rex addressed the kid in the back who asked him. “And Twi’leks aren’t the only species with them.”</p><p>“Yeah, Marqi!” One of the girls in the front turned around to the boy Rex was talking to, who looked confused. “She has those horns too! Twi’leks don’t have those!” Rex chuckled a little; it wasn't the first time he'd heard Commander Tano's montrals called <i>horns.</i></p><p>“Is she from Kamino too?” the kid in the front—well, now he had moved around to Rex’s side—cut him off again before Rex could correct the misconception about the Commander’s <i>horns.</i> Rex turned and moved his arm, and the kid moved back to Rex’s front with the rest of the group.</p><p>“No,” Rex told him, “she’s from Coruscant.”</p><p>“That’s in the Core Worlds, isn’t it?” Kiria piped up, and Rex nodded. She made a confused face. “That’s nowhere near the Outer Rim.”</p><p>“Er—I… travel with Com—Tano.” Well, it wasn’t<i> technically</i> a lie; Rex just opted to not tell the kids that he spent his days on a Venator-class Star Destroyer, fighting in a war alongside his sixteen-year-old Jedi commanding officer. <i>Travelling</i> was close enough. Luckily, the kids weren’t too intent on interrogating him.</p><p>“What do you do?” Kiria asked, and—<i>kriff.</i> What the actual<i> kriff</i> was he supposed to say? He <i>couldn't</i> lie (just did his best at avoiding the need); he was honestly surprised he hadn’t slipped up and called Commander Tano by her rank in front of them.</p><p>Not about to let all his work talking around the war go to waste, Rex twisted the truth once again. “We do relief and scouting jobs to planets in need.” Thankfully, the kids seemed to accept this answer and didn’t press further.</p><p>“Then why were you on our planet?” The kid in the front asked, and Rex mentally kicked himself for celebrating early. There really was no safe way of saying<i> we were investigating rumours of a weapons manufacturing depot for the Separatists.</i></p><p>“We stopped here for fuel and supplies before returning to Coruscant, but the engine of our ship blew out and we crashed,” Rex explained, figuring it was true enough.</p><p>“So, are you gonna be here a while?” Somehow, <i>all</i> the kids pressed closer to Rex, and they looked so eager, awaiting his answer. Truthfully, Rex didn’t know how long he, Cody and their <i>Jetii</i> would be on this ice ball; it depended on how long it would take for the other three to get here. He looked down at the kids, and suddenly… <i>really</i> didn’t want to disappoint them.</p><p>“…I guess?” he said uncertainly, and the kids outright <i>cheered, </i>drawing attention from the people around. “It depends on how long it takes for our backup to get here, though.” He raised his hands in a quelling gesture, trying to calm the excited children with little success. Rex didn’t know how to <i>handle</i> kids, how the <i>kriff</i> was he supposed to get them to calm down? </p><p>They were talking excitedly—and loudly—and Rex was bordering on <i>distressed</i>. Why the <i>kriff </i>was this stressful? He had been on the front lines of a war for nearly two kriffing years, watched his brothers die nearly every day, had commanders who <i>routinely threw themselves in danger</i> with <i>no</i> regard for their own safety, one of which was a kriffing <i>kid.</i> Why the actual <i>kriff</i> was dealing with nat-born kids <i>stressful?</i></p><p>Rex heard his own voice laugh from somewhere to his left, and he whirled around to look. There was a very familiar face wearing 212th yellow standing by the side of the tree, muffling a laugh like the <i>bastard</i> he was. Rex turned and made his way over to his <i>ori’vod,</i> which only made him laugh <i>harder</i> when the crowd of kids followed him. The kids noticed Cody quickly and got loud again, excitedly talking to each other in their native language.</p><p>Laughing at him or no, Rex was glad to see his brother again, even if it <i>had</i> only been half a rotation.</p><p>“You seem popular, <i>vod’ika,”</i> Cody said, a teasing smile on his face. Rex gave him a look he used to intimidate shinies that did nothing to the Commander.</p><p>“Was trying to find a long-distance radio and got sidetracked. Not by choice,” he explained. Cody’s smile got <i>wider,</i> a certain gleam in his eyes that wasn’t from the tree.</p><p>“Ah, <i>vod.</i> Despite your insistence that you don’t like the cadets on Kamino, you somehow always end up with a squad around you,” Cody teased him, slapping a hand on Rex’s pauldron. Rex’s scowl deepened, to no avail. A woman called out in the native language, which seemed to be rapid speech mixed in with some inhuman trills, and all the kids around Rex and Cody turned to look at the approaching figure. She waved them forward and somehow, <i>all</i> the nat-borns obeyed immediately, a few answering her in the same language. </p><p><i>Kriffing nat-borns.</i> Rex would never understand them. </p><p>The kid that had been standing in front of Rex, almost pressed into his armour, turned back to face him after a few steps and waved cheerfully.</p><p>“Good-bye, Rex! I’ll see you tomorrow!” He turned and jogged over to the woman, who gave Rex a small smile and another wave. Rex raised his hand and waved a little at both, smiling a little in return before he caught Cody giving him a <i>look</i> out of the corner of his eye and dropped his hand, face morphing into an exasperated look.</p><p>“So,” Cody began, hand sliding off Rex’s pauldron. “Where’s the radio you were sent to find?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Anakin was <i>cold. Very</i> cold.<p>And the village was so close it was almost <i>teasing</i> him, now. Nearly all Anakin’s energy was gone, he was frozen to the bone, he barely had working hands and the snow that had dripped down his back was close to re-freezing. It took a concerning amount of strength to hold up his dead mechanical arm—with his lightsaber—from his shoulder. He could feel the snow in his hair, freezing chunks of it together and pressing <i>quite uncomfortably</i> on the back of his neck.</p><p>There were lights up ahead, shining brightly and <i>warm </i>against the sky and trees. Anakin pushed on, feeling strangely like he was <i>walking into the light</i> in the metaphorical sense of <i>death.</i> </p><p>Of all the things that could do him in, he didn’t want it to be <i>snow.</i> </p><p>Determined not to die on this Force-forsaken ice ball, Anakin continued towards the light. Even if the lights from the village hadn’t been projected into the sky and on the trees, the Force signatures of the village’s inhabitants were so lively and cheerful that he almost felt <i>drawn</i> there in some way.</p><p><i>That was probably his completely rational need to get out of the snow and someplace warm,</i> Anakin reasoned with himself. He moved as quickly as he could—which wasn’t that fast, if he had the energy he would be sprinting right now— his frozen feet clumsily kicking up <i>more snow </i>into his boots. A designated part of his brain was now suck repeating every swear word he knew, in every language he knew, and had been for some time now. Anakin’s hatred for ice planets were starting to give his hatred of desert planets a run for its money.</p><p>The lights were getting brighter in tandem with the Force-signatures from the village, and Anakin’s vision was starting to get blurry; whether it was from exhaustion or snowflakes caught in his eyelashes, he didn’t know. Likely a combination of both. Each step took more effort than the last, and Anakin had long stopped trying to keep the snow out of his boots by actually <i>picking his feet up.</i> If he glanced back, the tracks would tell a very clear story of his exhaustion by the neatness (and later, lack thereof) in his footprints.</p><p>He shivered against the wind that wove its way through the trees and pressed forward, knowing that if he stopped and rested there was no guarantee that he’d get back up again. <i>Besides,</i> he told himself,<i> there will be warmer and comfier places to rest in the village. </i></p><p>It felt like the planet itself was sapping his energy.</p><p>His neck was getting tired. Anakin dropped his head a little, staring at the snow right in front of his boots, illuminated bright blue by his lightsaber. He focused on each step he took towards than the village, knowing from experience in the war was that the easiest way to reach the goal was to conquer each step one at a time. It was one of the many things Obi-wan had told him as a Padawan that Anakin had brushed off, but on occasion he found himself valuing the philosophy more when he needed to plan a complicated multi-rotation campaign.</p><p>Right about now, Anakin was remembering another lesson Obi-wan had taught him, which was the lesson that <i>a Jedi should always be attentive to the Force signatures of others.</i> The Force presence of the village was unignorable given how bright it was, but Anakin wasn’t<i> paying attention.</i> He just let the joyousness flow over him like a warm river, too tired and too cold to focus on anything besides the bare essentials of getting himself out of the snow. It felt like his whole head was encased in a block of ice.</p><p>Little by little, the blue reflected in the snow from his lightsaber got increasingly washed out by a warmer white. <i>The village! </i>Anakin’s face brightened and he jerked his head up, wincing when his stiff neck protested. There was a steep incline in front of him, and beyond that was… just light. Anakin couldn’t see any houses from where he was standing, but they were<i> definitely </i>there. Anakin deactivated his saber with his functional hand, left the hilt in his mechanical one as he dug his feet into the frozen ground as best he could with the snow—it was powdery, which was <i>just as bad </i>as trying to climb a sand dune back on Tatooine—and pushed himself to the top with more help from the Force than he should have needed. </p><p>Anakin knelt at the lip of what he could now tell was a large crater and—<i>wow.</i> The entire crater was filled with houses and buildings of all sort, nestled against and on top of one another in a cozy way. He could hear the ringing of bells coming from the village as well, accompanying many songs in a language he didn’t recognize. He prodded his Force bond with Ahsoka, which was much stronger than the last time he tried, but Anakin could tell she was still unconscious. A concerned <i>twang</i> shot through his mind and deepened his resolve to find his Padawan. The Force signatures of the rest of his companions radiated from the village as well.</p><p><i>Looks like I’m the last one,</i> Anakin thought wryly. Admiring the village from afar was great and all, but he <i>really</i> needed to get out of the snow. Anakin looked around, trying to find a staircase or something he could use to get down into the crater. It took him a moment, but there it was: a nice staircase directly into the village. A nice staircase directly into the village that led to the opposite side of the crater.</p><p>There was <i>no kriffing way</i> that Anakin was going to walk halfway around the crater to get to a staircase. It wasn’t like he got in the habit of using them anyway. </p><p><i>Plan B, then.</i> Anakin slumped against the lip of the crater, ignoring the cold seeping into his tunics through the snow. Looking at the houses that were stacked up and built into the side of the crater, he mentally plotted a path down using Force jumps. It wasn’t a difficult path by any standards, it was just that Anakin was truly in danger of slipping and hitting his head right now. His sore and frozen muscles didn’t do him any favours either.</p><p><i>No time to dwell on that. </i>Anakin took his lightsaber out of the fist of his mechanical hand and reattached it to his belt, steeling his resolve and pushing himself upright, joints cracking after kneeling for just a few short minutes. Anakin pushed off a little, dropping down onto a roof some fifty feet below him and cushioning his landing with the Force like he had done thousands of times. He walked to the edge and picked out another roof, repeating the process. His muscles burned, cold and disliking the current use.</p><p>Anakin made his way down the houses, mentally apologizing to each family as he traipsed across their rooves. It took longer than usual, but Anakin was more than willing to slow down right now. The Force signatures were <i>bright</i> and slightly overwhelming after being alone for so long, but he could pick out the Force signatures of his Captain, Master and Padawan with practiced ease.</p><p>A few houses later, he landed on the stone street in a crouch, using the Force to cushion the impact one more time. The air seemed <i>still,</i> compared to the surface. It was a pretty good design; having the village below the ground would negate a decent amount of wind, Anakin knew that moisture farmers back on Tatooine put their farms and often entire <i>houses</i> underground to keep the wind from blowing sand into them. </p><p>There were conversations floating from up ahead, loud and mixing together in multiple languages. Other sounds as well; Anakin heard more bells and instruments he didn’t recognize trailing through the air. <i>That’s probably where the people are,</i> Anakin reasoned, and made his way towards where he guessed the centre of the town to be. He began passing people on the road, all of whom were wearing heavier jackets with fur around the cuffs, built and dressed to show as little skin as possible. They looked at him as he passed, and Anakin could clearly feel their curiosity—tinged with <i>concern,</i> as well—in the Force.</p><p>Anakin could sense Ahsoka in the vicinity, and Obi-wan’s Force signature was hovering around her.</p><p>He was pretty sure the cold did something to his senses—Force senses included—and dulled them somehow, making figuring out Ahsoka and Obi-wan’s exact position difficult. He turned right, following the unnaturally calm glow of his Padawan and quiet worry rolling off Obi-wan to the doors of a large building complex. They automatically slid open with a familiar <i>hiss,</i> and Anakin very nearly <i>melted</i> when the rush of warmth from the three fireplaces hit him. He looked around the room, which was empty except for a woman sitting at a desk in the corner, nearly surrounded by holoscreens. He cleared his throat, and the woman looked up at him.</p><p>“Is my Padawan here?” Anakin asked before the woman could say anything. The holoscreens around her shut off, and she tilted her head in question. <i>Right,</i> Anakin remembered, <i>I am on an Outer Rim planet where the Jedi could be little more than a spacer tale.</i> “Uh, she’s sixteen, Togruta, orange skin with white markings on her face, white-and-blue montrals and lekku?” At his description, the woman nodded.</p><p>“She came in a few hours ago, carried by a man in armour. Rex?” Anakin, nodded, hearing his Captain’s name, but—<i>carried?</i> That didn’t sound good. Ahsoka rarely liked to be <i>carried,</i> though she seemed alright with jumping on Anakin's back from time to time.</p><p>“Is she okay?” Anakin asked anxiously. The woman pulled up a single holoscreen and read some information off it, then nodded.</p><p>“She is stable, just sleeping now. Her temperature is correct now.” She gave him a small reassuring smile, and Anakin let his worry flow into the Force.</p><p>“Can I go and see her?” The woman nodded again, getting off her chair and walking to the wall across from where Anakin was standing by the doors.</p><p>“Yes, but you are too cold also. You may see her, but then I must make sure you are well.” He followed her across the room, basking in the warmth from the fireplaces. <i>It was a good enough compromise, </i>Anakin told himself. He had gotten a <i>lot</i> of snow down his robes, and his fingers were still stiff and starting to swell a little from the abrupt change in temperature.</p><p>The woman typed something on a pad by the wall, then put a card on a scanner to the right. There was a soft <i>beep,</i> and two muffled <i>shunks</i> before a section of the wall slid open to reveal a staircase that was appearing as they watched. The mechanic in Anakin took a moment to appreciate the system as he waited for a moment behind the woman; it was an efficient system and executed beautifully.</p><p>“Follow me,” the woman instructed, and Anakin obeyed.</p><p>
  <i>I’m coming, Ahsoka.</i>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>AAAAAAAAH i've been wanting to write that Rex scene forever, I think it's been in my head since when i first thought of this fic on the first day of december!! And Fives isn't dead rn, my sister told me that the way I worded it sounded like he was so whoops:/</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Rendezvous</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Finally, everyone's back together (for a short time).</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm back~~<br/>SO sorry this chapter has taken so long for me to get out!!!! I've had this chapter mostly ready for a few days so i partially blame my sister for not fricking editing it but oh well. i PROMISE I will finish this fic and i promise it won't take another month for me to get a chapter out!!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Obi-wan could sense Anakin coming from a klik away, his bright presence only growing brighter as he was likely led up the same stairs Obi-wan was by Healer Halia. Brighter still, as the door slid open to reveal his former Padawan, covered in snow and hair freezing together, entire face red and mechanical arm held at an angle that it was probably frozen in. Obi-wan raised a judgemental eyebrow, and Anakin scowled in a way that was <i>so</i> familiar.</p><p>He would have thought that being stationed apart for weeks or months at a time would make him grow used to Anakin’s absence, but apparently not. The Force was useful, but it was still a relief to see the younger man safe and sound with his own two eyes.</p><p>Anakin’s gaze fixed on Ahsoka in the bed with Holoscreens monitoring her vitals and he immediately made his way over. Obi-wan stood up, meeting him.</p><p>“Is she alright?” He murmured, uncharacteristically quiet while reading the information projected on the screen in front of them. Obi-wan nodded, laying a reassuring hand on Anakin’s shoulder. He slumped a bit under the touch, and Obi-wan could feel his exhaustion and gratefulness clear as day.</p><p>“She will be, she’s just sleeping now.” Obi-wan lowered his voice to match Anakin’s, who slumped further. “You, on the other hand, need to be examined. I know you’re not holding your arm like that intentionally.” Anakin looked down at his mechanical hand, which was bent at a ninety-degree angle and hanging loosely from his shoulder. The hand was fixed in a relaxed-yet-stiff fist position; <i>leaving room for his lightsaber, </i>Obi-wan guessed.</p><p>Anakin scoffed, shaking his arm a little from the socket. “This? This is nothing. How’d <i>you </i>manage to escape the cold unaffected, Master?”</p><p><i>“I</i> don’t make stupid decisions,” Obi-wan shot back playfully. Judging from his former Padawan’s outraged expression, Anakin hadn’t made a decision that was stupid by<i> his</i> standards. Which were very high. “And besides,” Obi-wan cut him off, “I was with Cody.” Anakin’s expression morphed into one that was <i>far</i> too smug, and Obi-wan did his best to hide his blush by turning to back to Ahsoka.</p><p>“I’m fine—”</p><p>“It is not bad to know,” Healer Halia interrupted firmly from behind them, eyes fixed on Anakin. “You walked in the cold with the wrong clothes for a long time. It will be in the room to the—” she cut off and gestured to the far wall, where Obi-wan assumed there was another room. “There. To the—right. You are close to her. You need warm and rest.” <i>They all did,</i> Obi-wan thought, and amended his thoughts to <i>Anakin in particular needs to rest and get warm </i>after looking him up and down once again and cringing internally at the amount of snow covering him. If this much was on the outside of his robes, Obi-wan didn’t want to think about how much got inside.</p><p>Anakin turned to Obi-wan, and he could see the conflict in his former Padawan’s face. He gave the younger man a reassuring smile, gripping Anakin’s shoulder a little harder in reassurance. </p><p>“I will stay with her, Anakin. You can see her when you wake up.”</p><p>“Now, who said anything about sleeping?” Anakin protested, but it was more for the sake of normalcy than a real protest. Obi-wan knew him too well to not see the exhaustion written <i>everywhere</i> on the Knight; everything from his sagging posture to the smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes to the exhaustion in his Force signature that he was too tired to mask <i>screamed </i>for a bed. </p><p>“Follow me, An-Anakin?” Healer Halia instructed, voice a tad uncertain on Anakin’s name.</p><p>“Come get me when she wakes up,” Anakin requested, body turning towards the door</p><p>“I will,” Obi-wan promised, and Anakin gave him a small, grateful smile before following the healer out the doorway. When the door hissed shut and the room was only lit by the crackling fireplace and cool glow of the holoscreens, Obi-wan sank back into the chair.<i> It had been a difficult day for all of them,</i> he thought, sighing and letting the last of the tension seep out of his muscles. He turned his gaze to his Grandpadawan, who was still fast asleep, orange complexion washed out in the<br/>
harsh blue light.</p><p><i>She’ll be fine, </i>Obi-wan told himself, all but forcing the last of his worry into the Force. <i>You can rest. </i>With that admission, Obi-wan’s willpower slipped away—not that he was holding onto it anymore—and he curled up on his side, eyes closing. </p><p><i>Cody would be glad that you’re finally listening to his insistence that meditation is not a proper substitute for sleep,</i> his subconscious murmured.</p><p><i>Yes, he most likely would,</i> Obi-wan thought back—was it weird to have a conversation with himself in his own mind? He was too tired to care or shush that part of himself. He drifted off into a light slumber astoundingly quickly—maybe he <i>should</i> listen to his Commander more often and sleep when he could—comforted by the familiar Force signatures of his Ahsoka, Anakin and Cody.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>Ahsoka was significantly warmer than the last time she woke up. She opened her eyes slowly, vision taking its <i>sweet time</i> focusing. All she could pick out were the glowing blue blurs of holoscreens hovering in front of her, which—<i>wasn’t she on the road?</i> There was a kid standing in front of her, and then<i> so much pain, </i>and—<p>Kriff. She must have blacked out. </p><p>Ahsoka felt a small pang of guilt, making Rex carry her all the way to—wherever she was now. As she moved her head around to try and get her bearings, her montrals rubbed against something <i>incredibly </i>fuzzy. She reached a hand up, curious, but was interrupted by a flare of surprise and relief from someone she hadn’t even noticed.</p><p>“Ah, Ahsoka. Good to see you’re back with us,” the Coruscanti accent of her Grandmaster filled her montrals, slightly muffled by the fluff, and—<i>it didn’t hurt. </i>There was no ringing, no throbbing, no spike of pain with each word. She smiled in relief, trying to focus on Master Obi-wan’s face above the holoscreens.</p><p>“Master Kenobi?” she confirmed, still slightly out of it. His face appeared over her, slightly blurred by the holoscreens floating between them.</p><p>“I’m here, Ahsoka.” He smiled reassuringly, and Ahsoka closed her eyes and stretched out her senses. She could sense Skyguy in the room next to her, Force signature muted like he was in a deep sleep, but neither of the clones were in the vicinity.</p><p>“Where’s Rex?” she asked, opening her eyes again. “And Cody?”</p><p>“Rex left to find a communicator to contact Coruscant shortly before Cody and I arrived, and Cody left after him,” Master Obi-wan explained, and Ahsoka nestled her head further down into the material underneath her montrals. It was<i> really </i>soft.</p><p>“Will you be fine on your own for a few minutes?” Master Kenobi asked. “I promised Anakin that I would fetch him when you woke up.” Ahsoka nodded lazily, and then frowned.</p><p>“Why don’t you just comm him?” she asked, trying to push herself up into more of a sitting position with little success.</p><p>“I don’t believe his comm is currently functional, though I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try.” Master Kenobi raised his bracer with the commlink and pressed a button. “Anakin? Anakin, come in.” The line was only static, and Master Kenobi looked back up at her with an eyebrow slightly raised. Ahsoka nodded. </p><p>“Yeah, I’ll be fine for a few, Master. You can go get Anakin.” The corners of Master Obi-wan’s eyes crinkled warmly and he pushed himself out of the armchair he was sitting in. He stepped through the now-open doorway and turned back to give Ahsoka a small smile before walking over to the adjacent room. The door slid shut behind him, cutting off the extra light from the hallway.</p><p>Ahsoka sighed and turned her gaze back up to the wooden ceiling, following the grain with her eyes. She groaned, quickly losing focus and sat up, pulling the pillows up higher against the headboard to support herself. Her joints were still stiff—probably from the cold and lack of use—and she did her best to stretch them out from where she was seated in the bed, leaning against the pillows propped up on the headboard. </p><p>In the next room over, she felt Anakin’s Force signature stir and wake up, then all at once there was a flare of excitement. Ahsoka heard footsteps outside her door, which promptly slid open to reveal Master Obi-wan standing behind Skyguy, who was… missing an arm. The right sleeve of his base tunic hung loosely by his side, fluttering slightly as he power-walked towards Ahsoka.</p><p>“There you are, Snips,” he murmured, crouching by the side of her bed. “How are you feeling?” Ahsoka smiled a little at his worry—for how flippant her Master could seem sometimes, he cared strongly about everyone he knew. Senator Amidala <i>especially.</i></p><p>“I’m feeling better, Master. Not nearly as cold as before,” she joked, a reassuring smile on her face. Ahsoka felt her master’s relief blossom through the Force, warm and reassuring. She sat up fully, the holoscreens going a little fuzzy as her head passed through them. “And what about you? Where’s your other arm?” Anakin looked down at his loose sleeve, almost as if noticing he was, in fact, missing his mechanical arm.</p><p>“Don’t worry about that, Snips,” Skyguy laughed, turning back to face Ahsoka. “I didn’t think I’d have to ice-proof my mechanical hand, so I just had to take it off to recalibrate it. Nothing bad,” he reassured her. Ahsoka nodded. Aboard the <i>Resolute,</i> she’d found her master many times hunched over in various places, loose mechanical bits and tools strewn about, determinedly fiddling with his arm one-handed.</p><p>“In that case, should we go and join Rex and Cody?” Ahsoka changed the subject, turning to include Master Obi-wan in the conversation</p><p><i>“After </i>you’re clear with Healer Halia and we all have proper clothing, then yes, I don’t see why not.” Master Obi-wan stressed the <i>after you’re cleared</i> part more than Ahsoka personally thought was necessary, but she knew her Grandmaster just cared.</p><p>“I’m <i>fine, </i>Masters,” Ahsoka protested, pushing off the blankets and swinging her legs over the side of the bed, the heat from the holoscreen generators seeping through her leggings slightly. Both Master Anakin and Master Obi-wan took a cautious step forward, arms out and ready to catch her as she stood up. Ahsoka readjusted her tunic and gave them both a look. “See? Not passing out.”</p><p>“Still—” Skyguy walked over to the door and pressed the middle button on a panel next to it.</p><p>“What’re you doing?” Ahsoka asked, tilting her head to the side in curiosity.</p><p>“Calling the healer to make sure you’re <i>really</i> okay,” Master Skywalker explained, tone slightly like he was scolding a youngling for doing something they shouldn’t have. </p><p>Her master made an aborted move to cross his arms before remembering he was down an arm and tried to play it off casually. Ahsoka raised one of her brow markings, and Master Skywalker scowled playfully. There was no anger behind it—actually, his Force signature radiated nothing but relief and happiness, for once.</p><p>Ahsoka felt another Force signature approaching, becoming more defined a few moments before the door slid open again to reveal an unfamiliar woman—the healer, Ahsoka guessed. As the probable-healer approached, Ahsoka could tell she was about as tall as Ahsoka without her montrals. She had a dark grey, thigh-length jacket with the hood up, and her round face was framed by the white fur around the edge.</p><p>“How do you feel?” The healer asked Ahsoka, smiling warmly. Something about her Force signature was <i>soothing,</i> almost, or calm, like lying down in a warm bed after a long day.</p><p>“I feel much better, ma’am,” Ahsoka answered honestly. The woman nodded, pulling a datapad out of one of the pockets in her jacket and swiping a few times. Her eyes rapidly flicked back and forth, reading the information on the screen.</p><p>“The infoma—information says you are good for leave,” the healer told them as she put the datapad back in her pocket. “If you have more pain, return fast.” Ahsoka nodded, as did her masters.</p><p>“Thank you, Healer Halia,” Master Kenobi addressed the woman—Halia, that was a pretty name—who smiled in return. “If you would lead the way?” Healer Halia nodded and smiled again, turning and walking back out the door. Master Skywalker jogged back to his room and emerged a moment later with his arm in hand.</p><p>“It’s not perfect, but it’ll do for now,” he explained, rejoining the group. “I’ll reattach it once we get downstairs.”</p><p>The three Jedi followed the healer down the staircase—which was <i>really</i> cool, Ahsoka noted, and the lights along the sides were very pretty—until the doors at the other end slid open and they stepped out into the main area. There was quiet music playing from the desk in the corner in a language Ahsoka didn’t recognize—probably native to the planet or people—with crackling from three fireplaces in the background, adding to the atmosphere.</p><p>Hearing chattering, Ahsoka looked up and saw two people on the loft that went around the perimeter of the room, leaning against the railing and talking with a third person on a holocomm. She took a few more steps into the room and turned around, taking everything in. There was a combination of lights, ribbons and a long, green plant Ahsoka didn’t recognize looping around all the balconies and dangling down in some places. </p><p>“I have more jackets, for you to go outside,” Healer Halia said, jogging over to the desk in the corner and ducking out of sight. Ahsoka looked over at Master Anakin, who shrugged and plopped down on one of the couches, rolling up his sleeve to reattach his arm.</p><p>“Grab me one that looks good, will you, Snips?” He asked looking up for a moment. Ahsoka rolled her eyes fondly.</p><p>“Don’t worry, Master,” she replied, following Master Obi-wan over to Healer Halia. The healer straightened up from behind the desk, pulling out a decently sized wooden bin with neatly folded fabrics—more jackets, Ahsoka guessed. Healer Halia carefully pulled out a few jackets and put them aside after reading a small tag connected to each until she unfolded two. </p><p>“This will work,” she decided, handing the smaller of the two jackets to Ahsoka. It was quite soft—much more so than the fur-lined jackets provided by the Republic for missions to cold planets—and very beautiful; the outside was a dark, warm brown colour with swirling, silvery-blue patterns stitched into the hems. The fur around the edges was white with a few grey strands, and Ahsoka couldn’t resist running her hands through it over and over.</p><p>Not wasting any time—even indoors, with the fireplaces, Ahsoka’s exposed arms and back were still a little cold—she flipped the jacket around and swung it behind her, letting gravity pull it the rest of the way down. The fur was <i>so soft</i> against her bare skin, and the trim on the hood tickled her back lek. The coat was made for a humanoid—more specifically, one without montrals—so she couldn’t pull the hood all the way over her head, but just barely. To her right, Master Kenobi was struggling to unbunch the sleeves of his robes under the new jacket</p><p>“You need one for your friend, yes?” Healer Halia continued, and Ahsoka and Master Obi-wan nodded. “And I can give to you a—a—a fabric. A long one, um—” the healer addressed Ahsoka, making larger and larger gestures and muttering under her breath in her native language. “It’s long, and warm, and—scarf! I can give you a scarf for your montrals.” She gestured to the top of her head, where Ahsoka’s montrals were positioned, and dragged a smaller crate out next to the first</p><p>“If you would, please,” Master Obi-wan asked politely, straightening his coat. Healer Halia nodded and grabbed another jacket from the crate, standing up and comparing it to the one Master Kenobi had unfolded and was holding.</p><p>“This is good. Maybe. Go and try.” The healer quickly re-folded the jacket and gave it to Master Kenobi, who accepted it and gave her a slight bow of thanks.</p><p>“Thank you, Healer Halia.” Master Obi-wan turned and walked back to where Anakin was realigning his mechanical arm. Ahsoka knelt by the healer, who closed the first crate and pushed it back under the desk. She opened the smaller crate—more of a box, really—and pulled out two scarves that matched the embroidery on the hem of the jacket, similar design and all.</p><p>“Can I?” she asked, turning to face Ahsoka. She nodded, plopping down into a fully seated position and let the healer wrap the scarves around her montrals, skillfully knotting them to be secure and comfortable. Ahsoka moved to get up, but the healer gave a little tug on the scarves.</p><p>“Wait, please. The scarves cannot move.” Ahsoka obliged with a small smile, relaxing back down. She closed her eyes for a moment, using the tune Healer Halia was humming quietly as a slight grounding point to quickly slip into meditation. Between the crackling fires in the corners, the bright and happy Force signatures of her masters and the coziness of the room, Ahsoka felt truly at <i>peace. </i></p><p>It was a nice change of pace from the war, at any rate.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div><p>The sign Sephi told Cody to look for, thankfully, was written in Basic as well as whatever alphabet the planet used. It only took him and Captain Rex a few moments of looking around to locate it, with the large and crowded tree blocking their view.</p><p>“Do you have the comm codes?” Cody asked Rex, breaking the momentary silence between them. Rex looked over at him, then shook his head.</p><p>“No. I figured that I would find the comm and let the Jedi handle the rest.”</p><p>“It’s your lucky day then, vod’ika. Ob—” <i>Kriff. </i>“General Kenobi gave me the code for the council. Said they could send help faster.” Cody tried to play off his slip-up, but given the narrowing of Rex’s eyes, he wasn’t fooled. Rex scrutinized him a moment more and Cody kept his face at a perfect neutral parade rest, and the younger clone dropped it.</p><p>“And… why did your General entrust you with the Jedi Council’s comm codes?” <i>There it is,</i> Cody growled internally. He knew he celebrated too early.</p><p>“It was weeks ago, vod. He thought it would be useful, should I ever need to contact the council if General Kenobi wasn’t nearby."</p><p>“Has it come in handy?” Rex needled, seeming intent on getting maker-knows-what out of Cody.</p><p>“It has now.” The doors to the communications building slid open as they walked in front, and they were hit with another rush of warm air. There was a man sitting at a desk in the middle of the room, gaze flickering between the two holoscreens in front of him before looking at Cody and Rex.</p><p>“Do you need to call?” he asked, the blue glow from the screens disappearing as he turned them off.</p><p>“Yes, sir,” Rex answered, and the man nodded. He pulled up another screen and checked something, before nodding again.</p><p>“Table four is open. You go to the back of this room and go left, and it is at the end on the right. You can… use much time” He gestured as he talked, much like Sephi had done when she gave Cody directions.</p><p>“Thank you, sir,” Rex said, and Cody nodded in agreement. The man went back to the holoscreen and Cody and Rex walked past his desk, following the directions.</p><p>This building was far closer visually to the <i>Negotiator</i> than the rest of the village, Cody noticed as they walked past doors that were nearly identical to the ones aboard General Kenobi’s flagship. They turned into the last door on the right, which slid closed behind them with a slight <i>thud </i>as it hit the ground. </p><p>The room was square and<i> tiny </i>compared to the hologram room bridge on the <i>Negotiator—</i>Cody could walk the length of one of the walls in a few paces. There was a holotable identical to the standard ones used by the GAR in the centre of the room, which came as a slight relief to Cody. Unfamiliar technology could be a real pain in the <i>shebs </i>to try and learn without someone familiar. </p><p>Cody copied the comm code for the Council that General Kenobi had given him into the recipient information <i>(ignoring </i>the part of his brain that whispered that General Kenobi trusted him with the comm codes for the <i>Jedi Council,</i> that he was <i>special—) </i>and took a step back into a parade rest shoulder-to-shoulder with Rex as a simple animation indicated the outgoing call. Momentarily, the projection faded into the image of what Cody guessed to be the Council room on Coruscant, but all the seats were empty except for one.</p><p>“Commander Cody, Captain Rex,” General Windu greeted, poised in his chair. “What prompted this call?”</p><p>“Apologies for the interruption, sir,” Cody addressed the Jedi General, part of him surprised that the man recognized them, “but we were compromised on our mission to Svet-Ki and currently have no way of leaving the planet.” General Windu grabbed his datapad from the armrest of his chair and scrolled through it for a moment before nodding, returning his attention to Cody and Rex</p><p>“There are no available Republic vessels in your area, unfortunately. I’ll dispatch a transport from Coruscant immediately, it’ll arrive in two standard rotations. Unless anyone is injured?” Cody looked over at Rex, who hesitated for a split second.</p><p>“Commander Tano sustained damage to her montrals from the cold, but I believe she’ll be alright, sir. The Generals are fine.” General Windu nodded again.</p><p>“Then sit tight for a few rotations and keep yourselves warm, men. Make sure Kenobi, Skywalker and Tano don’t overexert themselves.” Cody couldn’t tell if the General was joking, but all the same, he would try his best. </p><p>“Sir, yes, sir,” the two chorused, raising their hands in tandem to a loose salute. General Windu returned the gesture, and the connection cut off.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>“Your jacket, as you requested, Anakin.” Anakin test-wiggled his mechanical fingers a few more times before looking up to see his master, holding out a black mass with fuzzy grey areas—what he guessed to be a folded jacket. He grabbed the bundle and let it fall open, looking the coat over.<p>“Hey, you even got my colour,” Anakin commented with a smile, standing up and beginning the process of tugging the jacket over his robes. Wearing multiple layers with long sleeves was absolutely insufferable, the layer on the inside would always <i>bunch up </i>and it frustrated him to <i>no end.</i></p><p>“I didn’t do anything; it seems Healer Halia knows your style as well.” Obi-wan replied, fidgeting with the fur by the cuff of his left sleeve.</p><p>“Kind of hard to miss. Black is all I wear.” Anakin gave his master a cocky grin, which quickly turned into a grimace and then a scowl as he aggressively readjusted his sleeve inside the fur coat. After a moment of struggling, Anakin settled for grabbing the sleeve of his robe and giving it a sharp <i>yank.</i> He looked up for a moment and saw Obi-wan trying to hide a laugh behind his hand.</p><p>“Don’t laugh at my suffering, Master,” Anakin griped, beginning his battle with the second sleeve. “It’s un-Jedi-like.” He felt another flare of amusement from Obi-wan in the Force, but he was too busy trying to get the <i>stupid kriffing sleeve to stop bunching up inside his coat—</i></p><p>“Having trouble, Master?” Anakin looked up from his struggle to see Ahsoka standing at Obi-wan’s shoulder with a coat of her own and a few matching scarves expertly wrapped around her montrals. </p><p>“C’mon, Snips, you’re supposed to be on my side here,” Anakin groaned, finishing adjusting his second sleeve and turning to button the coat, bending awkwardly at the waist to get the buttons by his knees. He took a moment to admire the simplistic, geometric stitching around the cuffs, whose ivory-white colour contrasted the black—it was actually a very dark brown, Anakin realized—fur of the coat.</p><p>“Shall we get going, then?” Obi-wan prompted. He was also admiring the embroidery on his coat, which was far more abundant than it was on Anakin’s coat; Obi-wan's coat had silvery lines swooping all around the fur trim at his wrists and knees.</p><p>“Do either of you know the way to—<i>wherever</i> Rex and Cody are now?” Ahsoka looked up at Anakin and Obi-wan, who exchanged a quick glance.</p><p>“Enough,” Anakin answered at the same time Obi-wan said “somewhat.” Ahsoka gave both of them an unimpressed look, and Anakin rolled his eyes.</p><p>“It’s past the tree in the village square, which is rather difficult to miss. And now that we’re warm again, it’ll be easier to just follow their Force signatures,” Obi-wan offered, and Anakin shrugged. It was a solid enough plan.</p><p>“We’ll find them eventually, Snips.” Ahsoka rolled her eyes and did up the last few buttons on her coat, pushing some of the excess fur trim along the edge out of the way.</p><p>“I’m sure we will, Master, but all the same, I’d rather not have to search the entire village.”</p><p>“Not the <i>entire </i>village, Snips,” Anakin teased, “I think we’d find them within <i>half. </i>Probably.” Obi-wan and Ahsoka gave him identically tired looks and Anakin snickered, walking over to the door. “I’m kidding, I can feel them this way.” He jerked his head to the left, indicating the direction. The door slid open and a cold wind blew a few snowflakes into Anakin’s face, who flinched and pulled his hood up. </p><p>“Well, we might as well get going before the snow gets worse.” Obi-wan remarked, stepping past him and turning to follow Anakin’s direction.</p><p>“It can’t be worse than a sandstorm, Master.” Anakin jogged forward to walk by his master’s side and felt Ahsoka’s Force signature following him.</p><p>“Not worse, Anakin. Just colder.” Anakin thought back his frozen… well, <i>everything </i>from his walk to the village and grimaced. Even with the new coat—which was incredibly comfortable—he’d still rather not be caught outside in a snowstorm.</p><p>“It’s <i>really</i> pretty here,” Ahsoka breathed, and Anakin looked down to see his Padawan gazing at the buildings and decorations as they passed. <i>If she passed out, she wouldn’t have seen them up close, would she? </i>Anakin thought to himself.</p><p>“Just wait until we get to the big tree,” Anakin smiled, and Ahsoka and Obi-wan looked over at him. “I can’t wait to see <i>that </i>up close.”</p><p>“Rex and I could see it from the top of the crater; it looked like every inch of it was wrapped in lights,” Ahsoka put in, and Anakin agreed. Looking down on the village from the rim of the crater, his eyes had been immediately drawn to the almost<i> obnoxiously</i> bright tree smack-dab in the centre.</p><p>“We’ll see soon enough, won’t we?” Obi-wan grabbed his sleeve and dragged Anakin to the right before he could walk into the lamp post positioned in front—behind, actually—the building.</p><p>“Thank you, Master,” Anakin grumbled, painstakingly readjusting his jacket and brushing off the few snowflakes that had collected on his shoulder. Obi-wan raised an eyebrow and gave him a sidelong glance, and Anakin rolled his eyes. He heard a snicker from his left and looked over to see Ahsoka stifling her laughter. <i>Badly.</i></p><p>“Not you too, Snips!” Anakin exclaimed dramatically, pressing a hand over his heart in a wounded fashion. His Padawan snorted at that.</p><p>“Better keep your eyes on the road, Master, lest you walk into another lamppost.” Obi-wan laughed at Ahsoka’s jab, and Anakin groaned.</p><p><i>Force, </i>he had missed them in the tundra.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div>“You’re worried about Commander Tano,” Cody stated as they walked back out into the town centre, interrupting Rex’s thoughts about that <i>exact</i> topic. He looked over at his brother for a moment, making eye contact before facing forward again.<p>“Yeah,” he conceded. “She was better when I left, but I’m still worried. I don’t know enough about Togruta biology or how delicate her montrals are.” Out of the corner of his eye, Rex saw Cody nod thoughtfully.</p><p>“General Kenobi told me there are Jedi who train to be healers that stay at the temple. If nothing else, I’m sure they would be able to help the Commander,” Cody offered. Rex had heard General Skywalker mention the Temple Healers before in passing so the information wasn’t new to him, but he appreciated his brother’s attempt to reassure him.</p><p>“You’re still worried though,” Cody noted as they reached the tree, leaning against the raised stand and looking at Rex</p><p>“I—” Rex started, not sure how to convey his feelings. He met Cody’s eyes, which softened in a rare show of sympathy.</p><p>“It’s alright, vod. She’s your Commander, and let’s be honest. She’s basically your vod’ika.” Cody gave Rex’s shoulder a small shove and Rex fell forward dramatically before retaliating with a playful punch of his own.</p><p>His good mood faded quickly, even with all the lights and people. “I didn’t even know that her montrals could be affected that much by the temperature, Cody. She could barely hear at times, and other times the whistling of the wind would make her flinch.”</p><p>Cody was silent for a moment, leaving only the ambient noises of the village centre.</p><p>“I think the Jedi are sturdier than us clones in some respects, vod,” Cody began, sounding more uncertain than Rex had ever heard him. “Even the littler ones, like Commander Tano. And—the Jedi, they look after their own, like us clones do.” Cody turned to face him. “General Kenobi and General Skywalker will see to it that she gets proper treatment when we get back to Coruscant. <i>If</i> she needs it,” he emphasized. Rex nodded, though some of the worry still lingered. <i>Commander Tano is </i>likely <i>to recover, </i>he reminded himself, feeling a little better.</p><p>
  <i>Thank the Force for his ori’vod.</i>
</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>-X-</p>
</div><i>Really,</i> Cody thought, <i>it was only protocol and maybe General Skywalker keeping Rex from adopting his Commander into the vode.</i> Cody had been there when Commander Tano was introduced on Christophsis, and Rex’s older brother instinct had only grown since then.<p>“Enough about me. What about you, vod?” Rex changed the subject, snapping Cody out of his thoughts. “How was your walk with General Kenobi?” <i>And it's back.</i> Cody<i> knew </i>Rex wouldn’t drop the topic. He shot Rex a glare, which did nothing to deter the smug smile that was spreading across his vod’ika’s face.</p><p>“Refreshingly uneventful,” Cody said decidedly. “General Kenobi got snow down his boots and refused to stop and take the time to <i>properly </i>empty them out. I mean<i> really,</i> it wouldn’t have <i>killed us</i> to stop for a few so there wasn’t a chunk of <i>ice </i>sliding down his boots.” Cody’s voice raised a little as talked, getting slightly worked up recounting his General’s stubborn <i>selflessness.</i> It was admirable, but Cody wished that General Kenobi would put himself first for <i>once.</i></p><p>“He probably just wanted to get you two out of the snow as fast as possible.” Rex’s comment stoked the flames of Cody’s annoyance and protectiveness that was <i>only </i>because General Kenobi was his General and a Jedi and <i>needed to take care of himself </i>because he was human as well, no matter how many backflips he could do—</p><p>“It wouldn’t have been an inconvenience to stop for a minute, Rex, and it certainly wouldn’t have killed us. General Kenobi knows that.” The moment Cody said it, he doubted it. General Kenobi was consistently selfless, and <i>constantly</i> put the vode before himself at every opportunity. From Rex’s raised eyebrow, he was thinking the same thing. </p><p>“I just wish he’d put <i>himself</i> first, for once,” Cody griped, dimly aware he was playing right into some sort of trap his vod’ika had set. “He doesn’t seem to realize that he needs rest and sustenance and kriffing <i>medical treatment</i> like the rest of us, vod.”</p><p>“Where’s General Kenobi now?” Rex asked, brow furrowing.</p><p>“We split up at the medical ward. He stayed with Commander Tano and I came to find you.” Rex nodded, looking over at Cody.</p><p>“Did you see her? Is she better?” Cody shook his head.</p><p>“I didn’t make it past the communal area, but General Kenobi’s with her now,” Cody told his brother. “Maybe he’s resting as well.” It was a long shot, part of Cody knew, but he could hope, nonetheless. Rex snorted.</p><p>“That would be a first. General Kenobi willingly resting.” Rex’s voice grew a sarcastic edge, making <i>General Kenobi willingly resting</i> sound like some spacer tale.</p><p>“You don’t know the half of it, vod.”</p><p>Rex looked like he was about to respond when they heard a <i>very </i>familiar Coruscanti accent call out Cody’s name. The clones looked to the left, and found their Jedi approaching in coats like those of the locals. Cody looked over at Rex, who looked like he had a fifty-pound weight lifted off his shoulders. He followed his brother’s gaze and focused on Commander Tano, who looked perfectly healthy. She had a warm brown coat buttoned down to her calves, and a scarf wrapped around her montrals. <i>Much </i>more appropriate clothing for the weather.</p><p>Naturally, Cody’s eyes slid over to his General, who was standing at General Skywalker’s right. As they approached and Cody and Rex walked over to meet them, Cody could see the fine silvery embroidery looping around the hems of his jacket and glinting faintly in the light from the tree. General Kenobi’s cheeks and nose were reddened from the cold, which was <i>far </i>more endearing than it should reasonably be.</p><p><i>Focusing on something else,</i> Cody directed himself. Something like how the coat the General was wearing somehow managed to fit the tan and white colour palette he usually wore, the white fur around the edges akin to the white of his bracers and softened his whole appearance, the silvery stitching <i>somehow </i>reminding Cody of the Force, swirling around and trailing up the coat and it fit him <i>so well—</i></p><p>No, that’s even worse.</p><p>“Did you manage to find the communications building?” General Kenobi asked, looking Cody over like he was checking for injury. It was becoming a habit between the two of them, making sure the other wasn’t hiding any wounds after an engagement.</p><p>“Yes, sir,” Cody responded, taking extra care to keep his voice steady and his eyes on the General’s face. <i>On General Kenobi’s </i>eyes,<i> not his lips, di’kut,</i> he scolded himself. “General Windu picked up, and he said just dispatched a transport from Coruscant. It’ll arrive in roughly two standard rotations.”</p><p>“From Coruscant?” General Kenobi asked, furrowing his brow. “There’s no one closer?”</p><p>“Nobody who is in a position to help us, General.” Kenobi nodded, looking thoughtful.</p><p>“Well, I guess we’ll have to see if the villagers are willing to house us in the meantime, won’t we?” Cody and Obi-wan seemed to drift closer subconsciously, and Cody suddenly became hyper aware of the two inches he had on his General. The light from the tree reflected in his blue eyes, and was it just Cody, or were they a brighter blue than usual?</p><p>“I’d rather not have to spend any more time in the snow, sir.” Cody offered a small smile, which grew as General Kenobi chuckled.</p><p>“I don’t think any of us would, Commander. We should secure ourselves some beds, before—well, not before it gets dark, I suppose.” Indeed, the sun had yet to rise on their position near the northern pole. A bed sounded <i>heavenly </i>to Cody right about now.</p><p>“Why don’t you go ask the healer?” Commander Tano asked, and General Kenobi looked down at her. “She’ll probably know where we can sleep for the night, at least.”</p><p>“Yes, I think that would be our best bet,” General Kenobi agreed, one hand drifting to his beard. His gaze slid over to General Skywalker, looking hesitant. Skywalker met his master’s gaze, and his face softened.</p><p>“Go ahead, Master. We won’t wander too far in your absence.” Cody could hear the reassuring tone in Skywalker’s voice, and General Kenobi smiled and dropped his hand.</p><p>“You better not, Anakin, but in any case—Cody, would you like to come with me?” The General’s attention turned back to Cody, who nodded.</p><p><i>Of course, General.</i> “Yes, sir.” Rex had a look on his face that Cody <i>entirely</i> did not appreciate. He shot his brother a glare—really, Rex, it was nothing special, the General just wanted someone watching his back <i>(but there’s no one here to attack you in the village)—</i> and stepped around General Skywalker and followed his General back the way they’d come.</p><p>Cody and General Kenobi’s boots made a faint <i>clicking</i> noise on the stones laid in the ground that was mostly covered up by the chattering of the natives. Cody’s gaze slid from one of the people to another, cataloging everything as the trainers on Kamino instructed him to. Everyone seemed to be wearing jackets in browns or blacks, except for the few white coats and a blue one he saw. He noticed how they gestured animatedly when they talked, how he couldn’t find a villager who wasn’t talking to or standing near another, how their laugh had a sort of trill behind that Cody couldn’t replicate if he tried.</p><p>“It is quite an interesting place, is it not?” Cody was so busy looking around them that he had missed his General falling into step with him.</p><p>“We rarely get to see places that aren’t ravaged by the war, sir. It’s a nice change of scenery.” It was true; all the planets Cody had visited had giant holes blasted into the surface and droids shooting at them, and any village or natives he saw were <i>nowhere </i>near as cheerful as here.</p><p>“I suppose it is. We’ll have to change that someday; let you enjoy yourself somewhere where no one’s trying to kill you.” </p><p>Cody was <i>way</i> too focused on that <i>we.</i> Honestly, he wasn’t sure he’d enjoy himself if his General weren’t with him, and he’d probably end up begrudgingly missing his brothers eventually.</p><p>Nevertheless, it would be nice.</p><p>“Well, nobody’s trying to kill us now,” Cody pointed out, General Kenobi chuckled softly, and Cody <i>viciously </i>ignored the way his chest seemed to get warmer.</p><p>“I suppose they’re not,” he agreed, tucking his hands into his sleeves and looking over at Cody. “Though I could do with warmer weather.”</p><p>“Agreed, sir.” His General’s face became pensive, the smile sliding off it into a thoughtful expression. Cody’s brows furrowed, wondering if something was wrong, if he had said something—</p><p>“Cody, may I make a request?” Kenobi’s voice was softer than it had been before, more uncertain.</p><p>“Anything, sir?” Cody couldn’t keep the question out of his voice. General Kenobi knew that he didn’t have to <i>request </i>anything—he was Cody’s commanding officer—but Cody knew that the General quietly did his best to refrain from ordering the men around for anything that wasn’t strictly mission related.</p><p>“Could you drop the rank while we’re stuck on this planet? If you’d prefer not to, I understand.” Cody looked down at his General in slight surprise, and he just looked… <i>tired.</i> Not the <i>I-need-to-sleep-and-then-I’ll-be-alright</i> tired, but truly bone-deep <i>exhausted.</i></p><p>“Yes, s— Gen— <i>Kenobi.”</i> General Kenobi laughed slightly, face softening in relief, and Cody smiled, hoping the low light hid his blush. <i>He’s a Jedi, and this isn’t the first time you’ve heard him talk about his thoughts of the Jedi becoming Generals,</i> Cody reminded himself, lest he let his hopes fly too far.<i> He probably doesn’t want to be reminded of his rank more than he needs to.</i></p><p>And of course, Cody would do anything to help his Genera—</p><p>
  <i>Obi-wan.</i>
</p><p>Calling his General by his name just felt <i>wrong, but a little part of Cody’s brain that the Kaminoans hadn't crushed whispered that <i>soon, you’re going to miss it. </i></i></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Anakin's frustration at his sleeves bunching up under jackets is <i>absolutely</i> me self-projecting</p><p>Thank you all for reading, and feel free to lmk what you think in the comments! kudos and reviews are always appreciated!!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you all so much for reading, I'll try to finish this before christmas! I think it's gonna get to be around five or six chapters, so I hope y'all enjoyed! Reviews/kudos/commenta would be greatly appreciated!</p><p>If you wanna come check me out on tumblr, I post some snippets of what I'm working on, im at https://chasethefearaway.tumblr.com</p></blockquote></div></div>
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